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

As world gambling experts gather in Auckland this week, the biggest threat on their minds is now online betting.

More pharmacists could end up prescribing medicines under Ministry of Health plans.

New documents reveal serious flaws in New Zealand's ability to contain an outbreak of Ebola or other deadly diseases.

A Ministry of Health email blunder has spilled private medical information of 24,000 Kiwis.

A major overhaul of how public health services are funded is being explored - with Health Minister Jonathan Coleman welcoming the radical proposals as "good for debate".

An inspection of Waikato District Health Board's mental health service has been announced following the arrest of a man working as a psychiatrist.

A report proposing that control of district health boards be removed from elected representatives has been down-played by Prime Minister John Key.

The Minister for Health says he has serious concerns after a health board staffer working as a psychiatrist was fired and arrested for possible identity fraud.

An active ingredient in a cream used to treat head lice and scabies has been linked to causing cancer and will be withdrawn from sale in New Zealand.

Nurses will now be stationed at 111 emergency call centres to answer "non-urgent" calls as part of a wide-ranging shakeup which may also give nurses operating national helplines access to patient records.

The Health Minister has dismissed all members of the Southern District Health Board and replaced them with a commissioner.

Four nurses have been caught cutting off callers inappropriately at Healthline, the Ministry of Health-funded national telephone service for health advice.

Death rates from general anaesthesia and some of the most common surgeries have been revealed.

A mistake by a surgeon during a brain operation caused a "catastrophic bleed", which led to a woman's death, a coroner has ruled.

Year-on-year figures show the number of people hospitalised with pneumonia has consistently increased each year since 2005.

A national programme to address rural depression will be developed in recognition of challenging times for farmers including volatility in milk prices.

Immediate changes to victim notification processes have been made after a man shopping at the supermarket ran into the man who stabbed him.

Undercover surveillance of tanning salons has found nearly half failed to implement key safety checks, a new study shows.

South Auckland is to have a new facility built for patients suffering acute mental illness, at a cost of $53.6 million.

New study suggests Kiwi men diagnosed with prostate cancer die sooner than those in Britain, and part of the reason may be poorly organised treatment.

An investigation concluded his surgeon had operated “without reasonable care and skill” after an elderly man died from complications of blood loss.

A second healthcare worker who recently returned from Sierra Leone has tested negative for the Ebola virus.

A second New Zealand healthcare worker is being tested for the Ebola virus after returning from West Africa.

The Asian rate reached 62 per 1000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2012, ahead of the European and other group on 57.

Police say an Auckland Council response to a new law for selling legal highs does not go far enough to protect vulnerable people in the central city.