Health

Two Dunedin Hospital wards are closed because patients have vomiting or diarrhoea, but test results so far have been negative for norovirus and rotavirus.

Colonoscopies are on the list of services Dunstan Hospital would like to provide.

Dunstan Hospital has come through the busiest time of year for ambulance services with few of the delays that caused concern last year.

There is potential for CT colonographies to be used as a screening tool for bowel cancer instead of colonoscopies, some health practitioners say, but the procedure is not publicly funded.

A bout of diarrhoea affecting six patients has closed the acute orthopaedics ward (3B) at Dunedin Hospital, but it is not known if the highly contagious norovirus has caused the outbreak.

The national bowel cancer screening programme announced by the previous government in May last year is still some years away, with funding not yet confirmed.

It will be up the people of Otago and Southland to decide if they want one health board covering both regions, says Health Minister Tony Ryall.

Vacancies at the Otago District Health Board have decreased to the point where the board could be at risk of going over-budget if many more staff are appointed.