Paediatric services — Otago and Southland

Paediatric services are available 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Dunedin Hospital

• Phone 03 470 9804
• Email paedsadmin@southerndhb.govt.nz

Southland Hospital

• Phone 03 218 1949

Dunedin Hospital

Street address

Dunedin Hospital
Paediatric outpatient department
201 Great King Street
Dunedin

Postal address

Paediatric outpatient department
Private Bag 1921
Dunedin 9054
New Zealand

Southland Hospital

Street address

Southland Hospital
Kew Road
Invercargill

Postal address

Paediatric department
PO Box 828
Invercargill 9840
New Zealand

We provide paediatric services for tamariki up to the day they turn 15. Services we provide include:

• support for high-risk deliveries and ongoing care for pēpi born above 32 weeks' gestation — pēpi born earlier than 32 weeks will be transferred to a level 3 unit, normally Dunedin, before delivery when possible or following stabilisation once born
• support, advice and education for a number of common paediatric conditions such as diabetes, asthma and eczema
• an outpatient nursing service for tamariki who require regular IV medications and also offer food challenges to tamariki with food allergies.

Some common health problems treat include:

• heart murmurs
• undescended testes
• inguinal hernias
• uninary tract infections.

We also run regular outpatient clinics for:

• cardiology
• neurology
• gastroenterology
• respiratory
• endocrine
• rheumatology
• immunology
• general surgery
• urology.

Paediatric surgery

There is a South Island-wide service known as the South Island Childhood Network Paediatric Surgery. The referral and transport guidelines aim to make sure tamariki surgery and care is done as close to home as possible and support, advice, and assistance is provided to the Child health services of provincial hospitals.

The Christchurch paediatric surgical centre serves all of the South Island except for neonates in Nelson Marlborough — they are transferred to Wellington for initial care, with follow up care done by the Christchurch service.

Christchurch paediatric surgeons provide:

• clinics and day surgery sessions at Dunedin and Invercargill hospitals on a regular basis according to each centre's needs
• 24-hour advice to general surgeons and paediatricians in paediatric surgical emergencies — each centre is encouraged to have at least 1 surgeon who can take primary responsibility in these cases
• up-skill courses for general surgeons in the management of paediatric surgery.

We accept referrals from the main healthcare provider of the tamaiti and hospital staff. We also accept self-referrals for some tamariki with higher medical needs.