The National Health Service is to recruit scores of trainee doctors from India and waive normal competency tests to try to plug staff shortages in A&E departments.

The Waikato District Health Board has lifted its ban on women having their labours and births photographed professionally - provided no intervention is required.

A cleaning supervisor at an Auckland hospital was sacked for failing to ensure critical areas, including operating theatres, were properly cleaned.

When surgeons proposed amputating part of Renata Muunu-Te Tane's left leg to eradicate cancer, his parents were understandably shocked - but another shock was yet to come.

A giant Easter egg hunt kicked off yesterday to raise money for Starship children's hospital.

An uncle of a young mother who died six hours after giving birth says changes must be made so new midwives are mentored after graduating.

The collapse of the Southern District Health Board's computer system could affect elective surgery and other procedures at Dunedin Hospital.

A young mother-to-be who fainted while giving birth was having an amniotic embolism that would kill her not long after, a medical expert says.

The lead maternity carer of a woman who died after giving birth told an inquest a family member threatened her saying: "You are going to pay for this, I'll hunt you down.''

A coroner has taken a midwife to task over failing to properly consult a woman about abnormalities with her baby's growth just days before she and the infant died.

An inquest has heard a young woman's medical notes seemed to be lacking when she arrived at hospital, haemorrahaging from childbirth and about to die.

As Casey Nathan was being rushed to hospital, she looked at her boyfriend, Hayden Tukiri, and said: "Babe, I'm gonna die."

A fired nurse has claimed another $3500 in her battle with the Auckland District Health Board.

Fifty years ago a hospital dedicated to women and their babies opened in Auckland. Andrew Stone talks to Linda Bryder, author of a new book on its chequered history

A midwife who made a catalogue of errors that led to the death of a newborn baby - and almost claimed the life of his mother - has apologised for the first time.

At Auckland City Hospital, about 10 surgery patients in every 1,000 will suffer a major internal infection after their operation.

The noise from major construction is upsetting patients at Auckland City Hospital, who are being offered earplugs to block out the banging and crashing.

The Counties Manukau District Health Board spends more than $2 million a year on travel - but it didn't offer to pay for a taxi when it discharged Natasha Teller overnight.

Ill-prepared families are dumping elderly relatives at hospitals before going on their holidays in a practice known as "granny dumping".

A nurse who verbally abused patients, fell asleep on the job and spent hours surfing the web has won $2.5k compensation after being wrongly dismissed.

One in five patients who turn up in NZ hospital emergency departments in the small hours of the morning are there because of booze, a study has found.

About 280,000 New Zealanders are waiting for elective surgery, and more than half are not on waiting lists, new research shows.

Two 60-year-old men in the Dutch city of Breda had an emotional meeting after a DNA test proved they had been mixed up as babies and given to the wrong mothers in 1953.

A traveling medical technician was sentenced Monday to 39 years in prison for stealing painkillers and infecting dozens of patients in multiple states with hepatitis C through tainted syringes.

The case of Leah Gayo, who suffered a heart attack in labour and died during childbirth in hospital, is among 489 serious adverse events at hospitals and health centres last year.

A woman who died in childbirth and the death of a teenage boy who was sent home with a serious infection are two of almost 500 adverse events reported in NZ hospitals.