Mike Houlahan

Clarification of Ministry of Health funding for Covid-19 recovery surgery has given the Southern District Health Board a financial incentive to tackle its backlog of elective operations.

Setting up the southern Covid-19 vaccination system has taken staff away from other immunisation programmes and is using people who might otherwise be contact-tracing.

Just as circumstances prevented National’s newly-elected MPs from making their maiden speeches when they intended, Southern Say’s plans to look at those orations last week fell by the wayside.

Martial artist Matt Sara is embroiled in a fight of a different sort, with International Taekwondo New Zealand about whether he can attempt to qualify for a black belt.

Two years could be shaved off the building time for the new Dunedin Hospital after it was approved for consideration for fast-track consent yesterday.

Burnout in southern hospitals is not an issue confined to doctors and is a chronic problem for nurses too, a local union delegate says.

Almost two-thirds of southern senior doctors and dentists may be suffering from professional or personal burnout.

Newly released details of proposed bed numbers in the new Dunedin Hospital suggest it could have 91 more beds than the current facility.

Patients spent up to 24 hours languishing in the corridors of Dunedin Hospital waiting to be seen earlier this week, as capacity issues in the beleaguered building reached crisis point.

A survey of QR code scanning at 40 randomly selected venues has revealed a deeply embedded Covid-19 complacency in Dunedin.

Southern front-line health workers will receive their first Covid-19 vaccinations next week.

It is the nature of politics that passing legislation can sometimes take a long time, so the baton has to be passed from one MP to another as parties enter or exit government or politicians rise up...

Changes to visa regulations could pave the way for the Southern District Health Board to recruit up to 15 much needed new staff.

Southern Maori hope a renewed partnership between runaka and health organisations will mean better and longer lives for their whanau.