Given most of this food is high in sugar, fat and salt, it is another milestone on the march to our collective doom, writes Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons.

When Tristan Cosio started school a fortnight ago he was ready and prepped. New school bag? Yes. New lunch box? You bet. Ministry of Health B4 School Check? No.

Auckland health workers face the prospect of job losses as district health boards grapple with a tightening supply of money from the Government.

In an unprecedented peek behind the closed doors of NZ's hospital wards, a junior doctor reveals the delays, duplication and waste that she says are compromising the provision of good health care.

The mother of a 3-year-old boy with severe clubfoot is overwhelmed by the generosity of the community after her son received a new pair of winter pyjamas as part of an appeal.

Hundreds of health workers are being bitten, head-butted and assaulted while they look after sick, injured and distressed patients.

Tens of thousands of Aucklanders have had to wait longer than they should to see a doctor for serious injuries and illnesses at the region's emergency departments.

Julia Townsend gave birth to all three of her children by caesarean but wishes she had been able to deliver them all naturally.

University of Otago researchers poring over blood samples uncovered a trend in adult New Zealanders that rattled health officials.

More ambulances are needed in Auckland to cope with ever-increasing 111 calls and relieve the burden on over-worked paramedics, according to the new St John boss.

After a gap of four decades, mothers suffering from severe mental illness will at last be able to be admitted to an Auckland psychiatric unit with their babies.

Meegan Hirst struggled with mental illnesses after the births of her second and third babies. The 43-year-old Te Atatu Peninsula woman's boys are now 17, 16 and 2.

Help is on the way for new mothers suffering from severe mental illnesses.

Patients in closed mental health wards at Waitemata District Health Board are allowed out for cigarettes as a reward for good behaviour, a patient alleges.

On any number of counts, the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill represents a particularly sorry piece of law-making.

Parents from some low-income Auckland suburbs face paying up to $25 for young children to see a doctor at an after-hours clinic.

Sending badly injured children to the wrong hospital may be contributing to a child death rate from injuries that is twice the rate of Australia's.

St John has admitted an initiative to replace ambulances with single-crew vehicles has backfired, resulting in longer waits for some patients.

The Govt finds itself without any tools to combat the rising tide of dietary diseases, and this is undermining its ability to meet its own health goals, writes Sue Kedgley.

On what should have been his fifth wedding anniversary, Praveen Halappanavar was instead at a coroner's court, hearing a jury deliver a verdict of medical misadventure in the death of his wife.

Thirty-three Auckland City Hospital workers have been disciplined for snooping at x-rays and other information on the man who had an eel removed from inside him.

Kerre McIvor says the suggestion that hospital food be prepared centrally and shipped nationally is absurd.

New Zealand seems to think dental care is one of those things that is "nice to have".

The non-pressurised plane has made 40 per cent fewer flights than expected. A flying medical service expected to save $200,000 is under review after nose-diving into debt.

The father of a boy whose mother failed in a legal bid to stop radiation therapy for a brain tumour, says his son is reacting well to treatment.

A New Zealand mother who lost a court battle in Britain to stop her 8-year-old son from receiving radiation therapy for cancer says her worst fears over the treatment have been realised.