Tauranga's coroner says "significant and serious failures" in the health care provided at Tauranga Hospital to two patients contributed to their premature deaths.

As Jo Griffiths lay in a coma in Wellington Hospital's intensive care unit, her teenage daughter was asked to make a call.

A dentist who left a patient with a piece of snapped equipment in his root canal has been criticised by the deputy health and disability commissioner.

Two teens feared they could die at any moment after a pathologist initially got the cause of their father's sudden death wrong - a mistake that went uncorrected for almost five months.

Rest home staff who left an elderly woman's broken hip untreated for several days have been ordered to apologise and will be reviewed by the Nursing Council.

Three general practitioners have been ordered to apologise after an overweight smoker died following repeatedly being prescribed an oral contraceptive pill.

A doctor who had a sexual relationship with a vulnerable patient, and paid her tens of thousands of dollars to keep quiet about it, has been found guilty of professional misconduct.

An intellectually impaired man was mistreated by caregivers at a respite facility, highlighting "multiple failings" in his care.

A psychiatrist who treated patients with the drug ketamine for depression was not carrying out research or experimental treatment, it's been found.

A GP who visited a patient at work, pulling his trousers down and asking her to perform a sex act on him, crossed boundaries, the Health and Disability Commissioner says.

A doctor who left a patient with large growths on her face after being injected with an unapproved drug has been fined $8000 and told his work will be scrutinised.

A plastic surgeon failed to tell a patient she had contracted the superbug MRSA following breast reduction surgery, the Health and Disability Commission has found.

A chiropractor accused of pinching a woman's nipples while treating her for lower back and leg pain has been told to formally apologise.

A hospital has apologised to a West Coast woman who suffered horrific burns when near-boiling water burst inside her during a procedure.

The parents of Zachary Gravatt, who died of meningococcal disease, have revealed a fresh agony they faced in putting their 22-year-old medical-student son to rest.

Newborns and unborn babies in later pregnancy have been dying in South Auckland at a higher rate than the national average for most of the past decade.

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board has been criticised for serious failings in the care it provided a mental health patient who later committed suicide.