Latest Health Headlines
Vitamin C does not alleviate gout as previously thought
Friday, 17 May 2013, 4:45 pm | University of Otago
Latest research from the University of Otago, Christchurch, has shown vitamin C does not significantly lower uric acid levels in gout patients, despite previous studies touting its benefit. More >>
What Makes Canterbury Feel All Right? Look At a Bus Shelter!
Friday, 17 May 2013, 4:26 pm | Canterbury District Health Board
Bus shelters across Christchurch are this month promoting the little things people do in our city to feel good. More >>
Pink Ribbon Breakfast 2013
Friday, 17 May 2013, 4:08 pm | Wairarapa Community Centre
The Wairarapa Community Centre is teaming up with Iberia Restaurant in hosting a Pink Ribbon Breakfast from 8am on Friday 31st May to raise money for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation. More >>
Canterbury DHB Welcomes National Patient Safety Campaign
Friday, 17 May 2013, 4:04 pm | Canterbury District Health Board
Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) is committed to its goal of zero harm to patients and pledges support to the Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC) for its leadership in announcing its National Patient Safety Campaign today. More >>
Meningococcal Meningitis: A Terrifying Illness
Friday, 17 May 2013, 3:32 pm | Auckland Medical Research Foundation
The Auckland Medical Research Foundation is to hold a free public lecture on a topic of growing interest Meningococcal Meningitis . More >>
Waikato DHB on Board with National Patient Safety Campaign
Friday, 17 May 2013, 2:48 pm | Waikato DHB
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) today (17 May) joins Associate Minister of Health Jo Goodhew and each of the four DHB regions – Northern, Midlands, Central and South Island - to launch a national patient safety campaign aimed at saving lives and reducing ... More >>
Deaf Aotearoa Supports the Use of Video Remote Interpreting
Friday, 17 May 2013, 2:25 pm | Deaf Aotearoa
Deaf Aotearoa believes increased access to frontline services via a new video remote interpreter service will greatly benefit the Deaf community. More >>
New campaign encourages health sector to be Open
Friday, 17 May 2013, 1:06 pm | Health Quality and Safety Commission
A national patient safety campaign focusing on reducing harm in the areas of falls, surgery, healthcare associated infections and medication is being launched in Auckland today. More >>
Waitemata Hits New High in Hand Hygiene
Friday, 17 May 2013, 12:47 pm | Waitemata District Health Board
17 May 2013 Waitemata Hits New High in Hand Hygiene Waitemata District Health Board’s drive for continuous improvement in patient care has seen it hit a new high in hand hygiene compliance. Audit results recently released for the period ending March 31 ... More >>
IDAHO a perfect time to deliver new resource
Friday, 17 May 2013, 10:10 am | Family Planning Association
Family Planning has just released a new resource for young women thinking about their sexual identity. More >>
Cantabrians keen to tackle flu this winter
Friday, 17 May 2013, 10:02 am | Canterbury District Health Board
More Cantabrians are making sure they don’t get influenza this year by getting their flu shot. More >>
UC researches hearing and speaking of ageing population
Friday, 17 May 2013, 9:32 am | University of Canterbury
As the Baby Boomers start to reach retirement age the number of those over 65 is quickly rising. More >>
Health Shortfall Has Serious Implications
Friday, 17 May 2013, 9:23 am | Association of Salaried Medical Specialists
“An estimated $150 million funding shortfall in the health budget has serious implications for public hospital medical specialists, who are already stretched to the limit because of entrenched workforce shortages,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ... More >>
Workforce training cash surplus should be re-directed
Thursday, 16 May 2013, 8:52 pm | Rural General Practice Network
A $10 million under spend in health workforce training coupled with a $2 million top-up to training announced in the Budget, clearly indicates that more incentives could be put into attracting doctors and nurses to hard to staff rural areas, says ... More >>
China Grants Patent For Detection of Gastric Cancer
Thursday, 16 May 2013, 5:30 pm | Pacific Edge
China, with one of the highest incidences of stomach (Gastric) cancer in the world, has granted Pacific Edge Limited (the Company) its patent, ‘Detection of Gastric Cancer’. This patent defines technology that can be used for the diagnosis of gastric ... More >>
Where Does Budget Leave Innovative Medicines?
Thursday, 16 May 2013, 3:29 pm | Medicines New Zealand
Media Release For Immediate Release Where Does Budget Leave Innovative Medicines? On Tuesday the Australian Government committed AU$691 million Dollars ($832 million NZ) over 5 years for new pharmaceutical investments - a forecast growth of 4.9%. ... More >>
Food Week Targets Young ‘Kitchen Strangers’
Thursday, 16 May 2013, 1:07 pm | NZ Nutrition Foundation
Food Week kicks off for a third year on Monday. The New Zealand Nutrition Foundation’s (NZNF) annual campaign is about building confidence in the kitchen and teaching Kiwis that cooking at home can be affordable and delicious. More >>
Employment and mental health
Thursday, 16 May 2013, 10:15 am | Wise Group
Wondering about work? New tool helps patients and their doctors talk about employment and mental health More >>
Social factors contribute to emergence of coronavirus
Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 4:15 pm | Massey University
A number of social factors make the emergence of viruses such as the new coronavirus more likely to recur a Massey specialist in the spread of infectious diseases says. More >>
Allergy epidemic impacts over one-third of New Zealanders
Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 1:31 pm | Alergy NZ
At least one-third of New Zealander’s health is impacted by allergies and one in ten babies born in New Zealand today will develop a significant allergy related health issue. More >>
Starship Foundation: ‘Bids For Kids’ Auction on Facebook
Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 12:57 pm | Starship Foundation
The Starship Foundation launched ‘Bids for Kids’ today – and it is the first charity in New Zealand to hold a live auction inside of Facebook. Every Monday for the next six weeks people from all over the world will have the opportunity to bid ... More >>
Starship Foundation Announces ‘Bids For Kids' Auction
Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 12:10 pm | Starship Foundation
The Starship Foundation launched ‘Bids for Kids’ today – and it is the first charity in New Zealand to hold a live auction inside of Facebook. More >>
Physios mourn passing of legend
Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 4:55 pm | Physiotherapy New Zealand
The physiotherapy profession is mourning the loss of one of its legends after Robin McKenzie passed away yesterday. More >>
HRV nails allergies with new partnership
Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 3:23 pm | Allergy New Zealand
HRV is pointing the finger at allergies this Allergy Awareness Week – 13th to 19th May – partnering with Allergy New Zealand to help raise awareness for those who live with allergies. More >>
Mother warns parents of the risks of synthetic cannabinoids
Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 1:43 pm | New Zealand Police
A mother dealing with the fallout of having a son addicted to so-called legal highs says many young people are under the false belief that because the items were able to be sold legally, they must be safe. More >>
Te reo Māori now part of online sign language dictionary
Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 12:59 pm | Victoria University of Wellington
Te reo Māori now part of online sign language dictionary Deaf New Zealanders now have access to te reo vocabulary in the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), thanks to Victoria University’s Deaf Studies Research Unit. Dr Rachel McKee, ... More >>
PSS welcomes Government attention to dementia needs
Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 11:43 am | Presbyterian Support
Presbyterian Support is pleased to note that in announcing an additional $70m allocated to aged care and dementia services in its Budget, the Government acknowledges the coming tidal wave of senior citizens. In the next 15 years the number of New Zealanders ... More >>
2013 Asthma Information
Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 11:21 am | Asthma Foundation
Asthma Awareness Week is on the 20-26 May, with Balloon Day, our main fundraising event, on Friday 24 May. New Zealand has some of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the world. One in four New Zealand children has asthma. This is over 296,000 children. More >>
With asthma, sometimes you need to make a fuss!
Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 11:13 am | Asthma Foundation
Asthma Awareness Week, on 20-26 May, aims to raise awareness of the high number of children, particularly Māori children, who are affected by and end up in hospital with asthma. More >>
At least one person dies every week from asthma
Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 11:10 am | Asthma Foundation
Charlie Temel had asthma off and on since he was about four years old. This included stays of up to five days in hospital and lots of trips to hospital in the middle of the night. A popular, outgoing and sporty boy, Charlie never let asthma hold him ... More >>
Sovereign Supports Youthline
Monday, 13 May 2013, 3:11 pm | Youthline
Youthline gets $100,000 boost from Sovereign to support young people to successfully move into the next stage of their lives. More >>
Free Stub it Out Game Now Available On Iphone
Monday, 13 May 2013, 2:24 pm | Tobacco Control Research Strategy
A free iPhone game is available for those who are trying to quit smoking, hot on the heels of a successful iPad release. More >>
Primary Health Care Nurse Excellence celebrated
Monday, 13 May 2013, 1:17 pm | Northland DHB
Acknowledging, celebrating and encouraging excellence in primary health care practice was commended last week with 19 Northland primary health care practitioners and one organisation honoured at the Inaugural ACE Awards, hosted by Te Tai Tokerau and Manaia ... More >>
Managing Blood Pressure – Part of the Diabetes Trifecta
Monday, 13 May 2013, 1:03 pm | NPS
This World Hypertension Day, NPS MedicineWise is urging people with diabetes to manage their blood pressure and cholesterol in concert with managing their blood glucose (sugar) levels. NPS Clinical Adviser Dr Philippa Binns says that a growing ... More >>
Hospice Awareness Week highlights the need for services
Monday, 13 May 2013, 12:05 pm | University of Canterbury
It costs Hospice New Zealand about $75 million a year to deliver its services to 34 hospices and $30 million of that comes from the community. This week is Hospice Awareness Week and University of Canterbury (UC) health sciences and palliative care ... More >>
ICU Ribbon Is Cut, Completing Waikato DHB New Critical Care
Monday, 13 May 2013, 11:33 am | Waikato District Health Board
The $12 million redevelopment of Critical Care at Waikato DHB is now officially complete with the ribbon to Waikato Hospital’s new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) cut on Friday (10 May). More >>
Chch Researchers Help Save Lives of Very Premature Babies
Monday, 13 May 2013, 11:15 am | University of Otago
Researchers from Christchurch have played a crucial role in an international study aimed at saving the lives of very premature babies. More >>
NZ Press Council Ruling Against North and South Magazine
Monday, 13 May 2013, 11:05 am | New Zealand Council of Homeopaths
In July 2012 the New Zealand magazine North and South ran a feature on alternative medicine which contained an article on homeopathy titled “ Homeopathy – Trick or Treatment” . The article contained the statements : “ homeopathic remedies ... More >>
UC researching issues facing asthma sufferers
Monday, 13 May 2013, 10:52 am | University of Canterbury
New Zealand has one of the highest asthma prevalence rates among developed countries. About 130 New Zealanders die each year because of asthma attacks. More >>
Hospice Awareness Week
Monday, 13 May 2013, 10:31 am | Hospice NZ
Hospice Awareness Week is a great time to think about what matters to you and discuss it with those closest to you, your family and friends. Take some time to think and talk about what you value, what you appreciate and what makes you happy – people, ... More >>
Innovative digital med-ed solution launches for GPs
Friday, 10 May 2013, 5:20 pm | Atlantis Healthcare
GPLink, an online channel featuring innovative medical information, presented by local clinical experts, launched earlier this month for GPs in New Zealand. More >>
DSC calls for public health system enquiry
Friday, 10 May 2013, 1:52 pm | Democrats for Social Credit
With over two decades of active involvement in New Zealand public health system issues behind him, the DSC’s Health Spokesman David Tranter is calling for a genuinely independent enquiry into the effects of successive governments replacing medical ... More >>
Confronting the Challenge of Abdominal Tuberculosis
Friday, 10 May 2013, 12:34 pm | Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
Abdominal tuberculosis (ATB) continues to pose a significant diagnostic, management and resource challenge, delegates to the 82nd Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons have been told. More >>
#1 Child Killer Identified
Friday, 10 May 2013, 11:08 am | Ken Walker
Shallow Water Blackout(SWB)is identified as the #1 root-cause of accidental child fatalities of all kinds and yet most people have never even heard of it according to Pool and Water Safety Expert Ken Walker’s newly published, free E-book ‘The ... More >>
Research Shows that Public Support for Smokefree is Strong
Friday, 10 May 2013, 10:09 am | Cancer Society Auckland
Cancer Society Auckland undertook a survey of 4 local communities in South Auckland to gauge public support for Smokefree. “This is the first localised survey of its kind undertaken in the Auckland area to provide local views on Smokefree”, says ... More >>
Northland DHB Celebrating International Nurses Day
Friday, 10 May 2013, 9:30 am | Northland DHB
Left to right: Cheryl Turner, Taikura Marama Turner (4), neice Turiri Brown (12), Karen Turner, Kahutiaterangi Shannon Turner (8), Jamie Turner and Maiaorere Heta Turner (5) More >>
Organisations Unite For Vasculitis Awareness Month
Thursday, 9 May 2013, 3:51 pm | Waikato District Health Board
May is Vasculitis Awareness Month and Waikato DHB is working together with Arthritis New Zealand to help Waikato residents understand the rare autoimmune condition. More >>
Plunket celebrates International Nurses Day
Thursday, 9 May 2013, 3:12 pm | New Zealand Plunket Society
On 12 May, the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, it’s time to celebrate nurses around the world through International Nurses Day. Plunket CEO Jenny Prince says that nurses make a huge contribution to society and are often unsung heroes. More >>
Rural Networks Plan to Reduce Suicide Rates in Farmers
Thursday, 9 May 2013, 2:41 pm | Rural Women New Zealand
Rising pressures on farmers and alarming statistics that show depression is a real issue in rural communities has prompted rural organisations to get together to find real solutions. More >>
Safely Performing Thyroid Procedures As Day Surgery
Thursday, 9 May 2013, 2:34 pm | Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
Well selected patients can safely undergo hemi-thyroid surgery as day patients, delegates to the 82nd Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons have been told. More >>
What Is the Best Strategy For Mitral Valve Endocarditis?
Thursday, 9 May 2013, 2:32 pm | Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
Different treatments for mitral valve endocarditis have been compared and their effectiveness measured during a presentation to cardiothoracic surgeons attending the 82nd Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. More >>
Improving Surgical Ward Rounds By Way of a Checklist
Thursday, 9 May 2013, 2:30 pm | Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
The use of a checklist during surgical ward rounds makes a significant improvement in the consideration of key aspects of patient care, delegates to the 82nd Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons have been ... More >>
No Silver Bullet In Tackling Nutritional Challenges
Thursday, 9 May 2013, 10:12 am | Agencies for Nutrition Action
‘Food literacy’ has become the new buzzword in health policy circles, says leading Australian academic and social nutritionist Associate Professor Danielle Gallegos. More >>
Should asthma control us or we control asthma?
Wednesday, 8 May 2013, 6:11 pm | Citizen News
Bobby Ramakant, Citizen News Service – CNS Managing asthma and controlling it well is the only way to live normally. Despite knowing this evidence-based fact and also recognizing estimates of alarming asthma rates in children and adults, most ... More >>
Trapped in my body – the faces of lupus
Wednesday, 8 May 2013, 5:59 pm | Arthritis New Zealand
Arthritis New Zealand Chief Executive Sandra Kirby today asked people to mark World Lupus Day this Friday 10 May. More >>
Predicting breast cancer recurrence
Wednesday, 8 May 2013, 5:03 pm | Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
While several factors can help predict breast cancer recurrence, less is known about the influence these factors have on the pattern of recurrence, notably its timing and site, delegates to the 82nd Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian ... More >>
Improved patient outcomes at a Level 1 Trauma Centre
Wednesday, 8 May 2013, 5:02 pm | Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
Further evidence has emerged that the introduction of dedicated, consultant-led acute care surgical centres results in markedly improved patient outcomes. More >>
Separating elective and acute surgical streams
Wednesday, 8 May 2013, 5:01 pm | Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
While the separation of elective and acute surgical streams is increasingly common in large metropolitan hospitals, the feasibility of such a model of surgical care in smaller provincial hospitals has only recently been tested, delegates to the 82nd ... More >>
Colorectal cancer in the young. Is it increasing?
Wednesday, 8 May 2013, 5:00 pm | Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
The crude rate of colorectal cancer in young Australians is increasing, but this is in line with an overall increase in reported cases, delegates to the 82nd Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons have been ... More >>
Delays in arrival of critically injured children at Starship
Wednesday, 8 May 2013, 4:59 pm | Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
Auckland is in desperate need of a structured trauma system, delegates to the 82nd Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, have been told. More >>
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