Hundreds of people in Auckland and Otago are being given preventive antibiotics

A mother who forced her children to undergo unnecessary surgery in order to orchestrate England's biggest ever benefit fraud, has been jailed.

In his new book Things That Matter, Middlemore Hospital intensive care specialist Dr David Galler discusses stories of life and death including his mother.

A 1-year-old baby boy was this morning burned after pouring a cup of hot coffee over himself. The incident happened at Gulf Harbour

A 20-month-old boy was taken to hospital suffering moderate injuries in Auckland this afternoon.

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.

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.

The Government today top-up after subcontractor prices came back higher than expected.

Middlemore Hospital has been designated a National Spinal Cord Impairment Centre, and has bought a new O-Arm and Navigation machine.

"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.

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.

Results from a ground-breaking study into the rate of alcohol-related harm in NZ and Australian emergency departments point to a "public health emergency".

Family and doctors at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital feared the precious 2yo was hours from death after suffering liver failure 2 weeks ago.

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.