Working at the hospice reminds you of what life is about - being with the people you love and who love you the most.

In an election year, it can be easy for the big issues, such as health, to become just political footballs, writes Ian McPherson.

PM John Key says leaving some synthetic drugs on the market was “a mistake” and Government should have banned all products until a rigorous testing regime was in place.

New Zealanders whose lives have been blighted by the dangers of legal highs are thrilled by plans to pull them from sale within a fortnight.

A nurse bequeathed $315,000 by an elderly couple who she cared for has been cleared of unethical behaviour by the health watchdog.

Staff at East Tamaki Healthcare general practices have been donning wigs, wings, hula skirts and decorating clinics to encourage patients to take more notice of their health.

An Auckland doctor training to be an anaesthetist has been censured, suspended from practice and charged with misconduct over her struggles with alcohol.

Labour will roll out a nationwide bowel cancer screening programme within three years if it is elected, leader David Cunliffe announced this afternoon.

Family and friends commented on what beautiful skin Elliott Gulliver had when she was born - unaware of the jaundice her olive skin was masking.

The father of a young Auckland mother who died in hospital two days after complaining of a sore arm says staff failed to tell him how serious her condition was.

A St John Ambulance call log shows the service received only one call from a woman stung dozens of times by wasps after claims she she tried calling 111 numerous times.

Poor old bowel cancer has struggled to grab headlines for many years, write Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons.

Jason Tamaiti Kihi Phillips admits he was one of those guys who was too shy to ask for medical help until it was nearly too late.

Shayle Pilcher admits to having slept in the same bed with at least one of her babies - by accident and through sheer exhaustion.

Health Minister Tony Ryall will retire from politics at the next election to take up employment in the private sector.

Public health authorities are working to prevent a measles outbreak after 19 students from an Auckland high school contracted the disease.

Report exposing flaws in Counties Manukau maternity care prompts Govt call for action.

Auckland's public health authority fears a highly infectious measles virus may be starting to spread in the city independently of imported cases of the disease.

Extra nurses and doctors were on duty to help shift vulnerable newborn babies as part of a major relocation of services at Middlemore Hospital.

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 district health board already scrutinised for mental health service failings has been criticised by a coroner in his findings on the death of a 17-year-old.

Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland is taking extra precautions to protect against norovirus after more than a dozen people there fell ill with the stomach virus.

Auckland's Middlemore Hospital is on alert after an outbreak of the stomach bug norovirus, with 11 patients and three staff affected..

The UK-based New Zealand mother who lost a legal battle over her son receiving treatment for his cancer says he is cancer-free and looking forward to returning to school.

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

A baby is the latest casualty of a highly infectious measles outbreak, as health workers treat fresh cases in the Taupo region.

A Friday-night assault of a Waikato businessman, now in a coma, is another example of unnecessary violence fuelled by alcohol, a top emergency department doctor says.