Health
$3.5m deficit after health pay rises
Otago District Health Board services have ended the year with a deficit of at least $3.5 million, mainly due to increased spending on wages.
Record numbers trying to quit smoking - group
Almost 44,000 people used a government-funded stop-smoking service during the past year.
DHBS requests info on doctors' standoff
District Health Boards are appealing an Employment Relations Authority request they hand over senior doctors' pay information, as part of ongoing pay negotiations with junior doctors.
Nurses seek mandatory safe staffing
Govt watching trials of new cancer drug
Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor says he will be watching trial results of a new prostate cancer drug with interest.
Volunteers keeping the pressure off
Concerns over pharmacies funding
The proposal for Otago and Southland community pharmacies' dispensing fees to be bulk-funded is not practical and likely to pit pharmacists and family doctors against one another, Pharmacy Guild of