Queenstown news and more...

  New prescription: Concept plans show a revamped Lakes District Hospital which could double in size Queenstown’s struggling hospital might eventually get a flash new upgrade – but there are no immediate plans to increase the number of beds. »»

December 2004: Mountain Scene first reports Wakatipu’s elderly care crisis with Chesney Esdaile, 90, deported from LDH to a Cromwell resthome. At least eight other elderly are reported to be expelled from Queenstown between 2004-08 May 2007: Former Queenstown mayoress Lorraine Cooper calls for action after outrage at frail elderly patients being shipped from LDH to resthomes outside the Wakatipu July 23, 2009: Mountain Scene »»

Queenstown mum Natasha Murray is worried SDHB’s proposal won’t include better maternity services. Murray, in Mountain Scene last August, blamed the death of her first unborn baby on the resort’s inadequate public health system. “There’s no mention of new maternity services or extra beds,” she says. “With an increasing population of 45 per cent by 2026, we’d most certainly need improved maternity »»

Plans to expand Lakes District Hospital could provide an alternative for a company that wants to build a private hospital.  Southern Cross Hospitals has resource consent for a hospital and medical centre – including operating theatres – at Remarkables Park, but plans were put on hold pending Southland District Health Board’s review of services at Lakes District Hospital.  However, Southern Cross boss Terry Moore »»

Official figures claiming Queenstown hospital beds are under-used are “flawed”, according to a group lobbying for a local health shakeup. Otago-Southland District Health Board’s long-awaited “hospital capacity review”, released last Thursday, cites only a 50 per cent occupancy rate for Lakes District Hospital’s 21 beds – suggesting “significant available capacity”. The review also »»

Don’t hold your breath for more public health dollars, Queenstown. That’s the conclusion from a newly released letter to Southland District Health Board from Health Minister Tony Ryall and Finance Minister Bill English – Queenstown’s MP. Ryall and English were writing to reluctantly approve SDHB’s “district annual plan” forecasting an $8.3 million deficit this fiscal year. SDHB plans to cut »»

Queenstown action group springs surprise weapon against SDHB The Wakatipu Health Trust will take its fight to Wellington with a surprise weapon. Trust spokesperson Maria Cole reveals a top health consultant has been hired to do a “needs assessment of hospital services at Queenstown”. The trust is campaigning for “fair and transparent funding” for Frankton’s Lakes District Hospital, accusing »»

700 fed up with SDHB robbing them of funding Almost 700 locals have risen up against Southland District Health Board’s inadequate Wakatipu hospital services, according to a group demanding a healthcare shake-up. A Wakatipu Health Trust survey – launched online three weeks ago – has returned an “overwhelming” response from residents sharing nightmare experiences at the 22-bed Lakes Dist­­rict Hospital, »»

Breakthrough talks may end heartless exile. It’s been an age but a breakthrough appears imminent in Queenstown’s elderly-care crisis. Southland District Health Board and Presbyterian Support Services (PSS) are working together on attracting a private specialist elderly-care operator to the Wakatipu. The newcomer would take over PSS’s Wakatipu Home for the Elderly – a 28-bed resthome in SDHB’s Lakes District »»

Speak up if Queenstown Lakes District Council’s recent aerial spraying of weedkiller on Queenstown Hill laid you low. That’s the plea from chemical-poisoning victim Mel Patten: “I want to know how many other [Queenstown Hill residents] had those symptoms.” Those symptoms were “really bad headaches, stinging swollen eyes, a sore throat and lots of trouble breathing”, Patten says. They started on January »»