An birth funding injection is soon to benefit a private maternity provider in Auckland.

The public Health Funding Authority is about to negotiate with Birthcare Auckland to lift the ceiling on its current 250 public births per year.

The HFA says that limit might be removed once the contract is re-negotiated.

The re-negotiations will be part of a new nationwide funding formula for births. Only hospitals currently with HFA contracts will be able to renegotiate under the new birthing plan, that is unless a hospital can produce evidence that there is a demonstrated need in its area.

Currently, there are four private maternity units being funded by the Health Funding Authority in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch, with another 20 such private units receiving public contracts nationwide.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>