A threat to ban smokers from Auckland's top DHB splits nzherald readers.

Nurses have resorted to wearing human flea collars on their ankles to protect against an infestation of the biting insects at Auckland hospitals, brought in by patients who own pets.

Some central Auckland patients could be treated at North Shore and Waitakere Hospitals under a spirit of collaboration, the man now responsible for nearly one million Aucklanders' health has indicated.

The Auckland District Health Board will apologise to a mother whose unborn baby did not survive a publicly funded procedure at Auckland Hospital and was sent a $2200 bill for the treatment.

A schizophrenic man who beat a friend to death after being released from psychiatric care - despite telling staff he wanted to kill someone - is allowed back into the community without supervision.

Vulnerable health workers are being suspended without pay to intimidate them into ending their industrial action, the lab workers' union says.

The parents of a baby girl are devastated after being told surgery to help her to eat without a tube has been postponed because of hospital strikes.