Mike Houlahan

A chronic shortage of aged residential care nurses in the South is showing no signs of easing.

Covid-19 continues to be a major drain on the Southern District Health Board’s finances, despite it having received an unbudgeted $7million towards its vaccination programme.

If you wrong us shall we not revenge, Shakespeare asked in The Merchant Of Venice.

Clinicians are planning for a Covid-19 worst-case scenario in which close to 900 cases a week are reported in Otago and Southland and 40 people are in hospital.

Southern disability advocates have welcomed the Government announcement yesterday that it plans to establish a ministry for disabled people.

Cancer diagnoses dropped 9% during this year’s nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, but how Alert Level 4 affected southern cancer services remains unclear.

A vast amount of work needs to be done before New Zealanders know how their new-look health system will work, an Otago academic says.

Sceptical members of the public will not trust that the end of life choice system is being properly managed unless robust research and transparent reporting systems are in place, Otago academics say.

Telehealth worked well during lockdown and patients at a Dunedin medical centre welcomed virtual appointments, research has found.

Southern sailor Bruce Blackburn has managed to get off the logging vessel he had been stranded on for several weeks while unable to get an emergency quarantine spot in New Zealand.

A Gore GP has questioned her professional body for its support of mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for health and disability sector workers.

A ‘‘child rescue’’ model unfairly dominates the way decisions are made about the welfare of at-risk children, outgoing Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft says.

The South is set to remain at Alert Level 2 for at least another two weeks, despite Australia opening up quarantine-free travel from the South Island.

It turns out, according to a recently released Cabinet paper, that every one has the right to participate in the ‘‘digital identity ecosystem’’.

Pencil in June 24 in your 2022 diary. We are — probably — going on holiday.

More than 400 Southerners have waited more than a year for an elective procedure and many others have lingered more than the expected four months on the waiting list.

Southern hospital patients are about to be surveyed to gauge how satisfied they are with the care they are receiving.