Hospital leaders are braced to hear today if resident medical officers will join the wave of strikes disrupting health services.

Starship patients are being put at risk due to a shortage of staff, the union representing doctors says.

Mother says her daughter went through unnecessary suffering for a common, though potentially lethal, complaint.

Police are investigating whether alcohol played a part in last night's two-vehicle crash on one of NZ's most notorious stretches of highway.

John Key had told striking Auckland radiographers to be mindful of other successful negotiations in the health sector.

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.

An Auckland surgeon says he was astounded when a 15-year-old girl walked into hospital complaining she had swallowed a 19cm toothbrush.

Surgery is being cancelled for hundreds of patients from Tuesday in preparation for four days of strikes by radiographers.

TVNZ has apologised for a comment by presenter Paul Henry that overseas-trained doctors can't be as good as those trained in NZ.

Many patients booked for elective surgery or an outpatient visit will have their appointments postponed during planned walkouts.