11. Encouraging news for heart patients

Inheriting gene variants that increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease does not necessarily mean an individual is going to have reduced life expectancy if he or she suffers a heart attack Two research papers revealing these findings by Dr Katrina Ellis and colleagues at the University of Otago Christchurch have been highlighted in the leading international cardiology ... Read More

12. New Study to Help Reduce Asthma Burden in New Zealand

One in six New Zealand adults and one in four of our children experience asthma symptoms This adds up to more than 600000 New Zealanders Asthma is the most common cause of admission to hospital for children Hospitalisation rates for asthma have more than doubled in the past 30 years A report entitled Health New Zealand s Untreated Addiction warns that the growing ... Read More

13. Neurosurgery Fund reaches 2 million

The Chair of Neurosurgery Fund has reached 2 million in 10 weeks though only 4 per cent of the funding so far has come from Southland Southern neurosurgery clinical director Martin MacFarlane said this was despite the fact about 50 per cent of the patients coming through the neurosurgery unit at Dunedin were from Southland Dr MacFarlane said the countrys first Chair i ... Read More

14. Busy emergency rooms stretch budgets

A steady rise in numbers at emergency departments at Invercargill and Dunedin had created quota heightened state of anxietyquot ahead of budgeting for the annual plan the Southern District Health Board deputy chairman said There were 2749 emergency room visits at Southland Hospital in February compared to 2579 in February 2011 January had also shown a similar rise in emergency ... Read More

15. Hospitals will get a shot in the arm

District health boards are snapping up a British National Health Service initiative to improve productivity in hospital wards and operating theatres The Productive Operating Theatre and Productive Wards Releasing Time to Care programmes involve relatively lowcost and simple measures Bay of Plenty District Health Board among the first to implement the programmes in 2009 ... Read More

16. Canterbury clinicians work to reduce central line infections

Canterbury clinicians at Christchurch Hospitals Intensive Care Unit ICU lead the country in reducing hospitalacquired blood infections The hospitals ICU has just reached an important landmark as part of its participation in the national collaboration to prevent central line associated bacteraemia CLAB Dr Dave Knight Intensive Care Specialist says its been more t ... Read More

17. Plan to reduce heart patient wait times

Cardiologists around New Zealand are watching a pilot project at Waikato Hospital in the hope it will help reduce treatment times for acute coronary syndrome The number of patients going to hospital emergency departments with symptoms of the syndrome which include chest pain nausea and sweating is rising nationwide putting pressure on bed availability laboratories and patient ... Read More

18. Ambulances get top defibrillators

Three hitech defibrillators have been bought to equip Taranaki ambulances with another tool to combat cardiac arrests Yesterday Mayor Harry Duynhoven presented the new machines worth more than 30000 each to St John St John North Taranaki area committee chairman Doug Ashby said every year in New Zealand more than 1000 people went into cardiac arrest outside the hospital ... Read More

19. Developing new oral rotavirus vaccine

Rotavirus gastro is a lifethreatening diarrheal disease that results in the death of over half a million children under five worldwide and two million hospitalisations each year In New Zealand rotavirus is responsible for 1500 hospital admissions of children under five years of age each year The research collaboration led by the Murdoch Children s Research Institute at t ... Read More

20. NZ health policy questioned

The widening health gap between New Zealands rich and poor has been highlighted in leading international medical journal The Lancet and has been labelled by health professionals as a quotsad indictment of the powerfulquot In the wake of new research revealing the dramatic unequal rise in the rate of infectious diseases the esteemed global publication has called on the Governmen ... Read More