Behaviour by supporters of women in labour have prompted calls at one hospital delivery suite to limit the number of family members attending a birth.

A Westport family had to take their elderly relative to Buller Hospital on Tuesday night because a St John ambulance couldn't come for 90 minutes.

Uto Enosi Tuipulotu came to Akaroa to support his family back in Tonga, but now is in Christchurch Hospital battling a rare form of cancer.

More than 180 people have died in flooding along the Yangtze River in China after torrential rain. Eleven million dollars is going being pumped into Dunedin Hospital, for a new critical care unit.

A man in his 60s who was injured in an electrical accident at a Christchurch fertiliser plant remains in intensive care at Middlemore Hospital.

Seven fire crews are battling a fire at a women's clinic in Auckland.

Five-year-old Saoirse Gaffney went to the doctor with a sore tummy last month, only to be told she had an extremely rare cancer.

The number of West Coast orthopaedic patients transferred to Christchurch has skyrocketed despite assurances "less than a dozen" would occur each year.

Waitakere Hospital has hit back at an urban Maori authority which urged sick people to avoid expensive after-hours clinics by going straight to the free ED.

"Terrible" alcohol-fuelled violence that requires police dogs and Tasers to deal with is an example of why stricter booze controls are needed.

Under a new measurement system, it is estimated that between 60,000 and 80,000 patients are being sent back to their GP for care each year.

Documents released to the Labour Party showed the funding gap at these DHBs ranged between $500,000 and nearly $2 million.

To demand "savings" from the country's district health boards is good economics but brave politics.

Minister Coleman labelled 'cowardly' over refusal to comment on DHB leave blowout.

A new outpatient facility will be completed in 2018 and is to be located directly opposite Christchurch Hospital.

A mother says a hospital discriminated against her injured son by sending him home with fractured facial bones, saying they would probably heal by themselves.

More than 70 upper North Island health workers have been disciplined for snooping into patients' records in the past three years.

Christmas has come early for sick kids at Starship as Maria Tutaia delivered a special supply of New World's "Little Christmas" collectibles.

Frontline workers at Auckland District Health Board are complaining of under-staffing, exhaustion and unpaid overtime.

A motorcyclist who crashed into a power pole in Upper Hutt today has died. The crash happened on Fergusson Drive, near St Patrick's College, about 2.20pm.

An outbreak of a highly contagious bug at Starship Hospital has forced sick children into isolation meaning families have been ordered to stay away.

Three provincial North Island hospitals have unexpectedly high death rates, according to data released to the Herald after a two-year wait.

When it is considered how much rest home workers have to do for aged people in care, few would begrudge them a substantial improvement on the pay they receive.

Staff working for companies producing artificial hips, pacemakers and other medical devices are being allowed into surgeries at hospitals without the consent of patients.

After two bad hip replacements left Lynne McKay in agony, she tells David Fisher what really hurts is that our health system still fails to hold anyone responsible.

Half of the metal-on-metal hip implants received by thousands of New Zealanders about a decade ago experienced significant defects, a Herald investigation has found.

Shocking preliminary results from a survey show 56% of medical students had reported being the victim of bullying or sexual harassment in the past year.

One in five junior doctors have either experienced or witnessed bullying, sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour against other resident doctors in the last two years.

Alleged fake psychiatrist considered a flight risk because he planned to leave NZ to care for his sick mother instead of fighting an employment dispute.

A nurse who stole 5000 vials from a restricted medicine room was able to keep taking the drug because the hospital did not confiscate her ID swipe card.