Stories by Rowan Quinn

Bev Tanner's entire body used to swell up during attacks from a rare disease. Not any more.

"No expert I know says we're going to get through the next outbreak without seeing some tragic deaths of babies," says Otago University epidemiology professor Michael Baker.

The number of patients facing lengthy waits has doubled in some regions in a year.

Hanne has been before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal that will decide his punishment for prescribing drugs like ritalin without the required approval of a specialist.

Hospitals are putting contingency plans into action as the latest Covid wave hits staffing numbers.

The organisation said it had accepted applications for the latest updates of the Pfizer and Novovax vaccines which cover the XBB 1.5 strain of Omicron.

Emergency department doctors at two Auckland hospitals are warning someone could be killed or seriously injured if security is not improved in the face of rising rates of violence and aggression.

Violence and abuse by patients and visitors have forced staff at North Shore and Waitākere hospitals to call security or hit panic buttons thousands of times within a seven-month period.

Patients are regularly having to wait a year and a half for heart scans that could tell them whether they have a serious or life-threatening condition.

It is now the biggest employer in the country with 220,000 staff, but many of them say it needs to do better.

They fear the public engagement stage could get caught up in electioneering if it was held sooner.

Alarmed public health experts are calling for pregnant women to be tested twice for syphilis as cases in newborns and unborn babies increase.

National is accusing the government of blocking the release of a report into the performance of the Māori Health Authority/Te Aka Whai Ora.

The nurse had accused police of not taking violence against health staff seriously, believing no charges had been laid.

Fifty students who would otherwise have been turned away from med school will now have the chance to become doctors.

The nurse says the assault happened when she asked a patient to hand over her vape and is upset police is not taking her complaint seriously.

Patients will no longer have to top up the cost of their prescription medicines, in one of few new investments for health this Budget.

North Shore Hospital say bollards prevented the car from making contact with the building - which is what they were designed to do.

A senior doctor's union is not optimistic a lot of money will come for the health sector tomorrow, even thought it needs it.

One of the women diagnosed with cancer after breast screening failures in Wellington says they were all harmed, no matter what a review says.

The figure is part of a damning report into breast screening that calls the system racist.

When it comes to planned surgery, the criteria to get an operation are still different all over the country, the Association of General Surgeons president says.

Doctors say they will still be slogging it out this winter, with a new government plan likely to make very little difference to overcrowding and huge waits. Audio

The Ministry of Health is considering whether to suspend the controversial use of surgical mesh to treat urinary incontinence.

Nearly 600,000 people have had a flu shot in the first four weeks of the main rollout, as doctors warn of a significant and severe season ahead.