Page 4 - Phil Wheble News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The West Coast District Health Board says children in urgent need of mental health support are getting it, despite an overall increase in waiting times for the service. Photo: 123RF National Party's mental health spokesman Matt Doocey has accused the Government of failing in its promises to improve mental health services, and says children are waiting too long to see clinicians. "Wait times have ballooned under Labour, which I only was able to discover after investigating individual DHB data sets. Children and adolescents are spending far too much time in a queue to see clinicians and get the...

The National Bowel Screening programme is coming to the West Coast with free tests for people aged 60 to 74. The West Coast has the third highest bowel cancer mortality rate in the country. (file pic) Photo: AFP / Science Photo Library The Coast has one of the highest bowel cancer rates in the country for people in their 60s and close to half of those diagnosed with the disease die of it, according to the West Coast District Health Board. The screening programme is already running in 14 regions and the Ministry of Health aims to start testing on the Coast in May.

Is rural generalism best for the Coast? In recent weeks, various medics and their union have - unusually for the profession - aired their views in this paper on the use of 'rural generalists', a new breed of doctor increasingly being employed on the West Coast to work both in hospitals and at GP clinics. Te Nikau Hospital & Health Centre, Greymouth. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon For the West Coast District Health Board, 'rural generalists' or rural health specialists, as they're also known, are a godsend: the answer to the region's perennial difficulties in attracting specialists and GPs. But t...