A midwife who made a catalogue of errors that led to the death of a newborn baby - and almost claimed the life of his mother - has apologised for the first time.

A report into a horrific labour that left the baby dead and the mother with debilitating injuries is critical of the midwife and the DHB obstetrician involved.

Drunk patients account for almost a third of those seeking emergency hospital treatment on Saturday nights, research shows.

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

The noise from major construction is upsetting patients at Auckland City Hospital, who are being offered earplugs to block out the banging and crashing.

The Counties Manukau District Health Board spends more than $2 million a year on travel - but it didn't offer to pay for a taxi when it discharged Natasha Teller overnight.

Ill-prepared families are dumping elderly relatives at hospitals before going on their holidays in a practice known as "granny dumping".

A nurse who verbally abused patients, fell asleep on the job and spent hours surfing the web has won $2.5k compensation after being wrongly dismissed.

One in five patients who turn up in NZ hospital emergency departments in the small hours of the morning are there because of booze, a study has found.

A traveling medical technician was sentenced Monday to 39 years in prison for stealing painkillers and infecting dozens of patients in multiple states with hepatitis C through tainted syringes.

The case of Leah Gayo, who suffered a heart attack in labour and died during childbirth in hospital, is among 489 serious adverse events at hospitals and health centres last year.

A woman who died in childbirth and the death of a teenage boy who was sent home with a serious infection are two of almost 500 adverse events reported in NZ hospitals.

Immigration officials will consider removing GPs from a skills shortage list as newly qualified immigrant doctors struggle to find jobs in hospitals.

Two mothers of sick babies in hospital have spoken out about being refused meals because they weren't breastfeeding.

Debi Piper knew her little boy was slowly dying. But the words written on his hospital care plan still hurt.

The family of an elderly South Auckland woman are "furious" she was sent home from hospital by taxi in the early hours of the morning.

Nasie Bayley has such a rare condition in her digestive system doctors consulted leading international specialists before operating.

An American doctor continues to work in Tauranga Hospital's emergency department as more revelations of past police and medical investigations surface.

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.

It is just after 8 o'clock on Friday night and Lee Mohr is doubled up in pain, alone at a bus stop outside Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland.

Legal highs must be banned sooner rather than later, says a Coroner who ruled on the deaths of two young men who both died shortly after taking K2 and party pills.

An increase in the number of patients showing up at emergency departments paranoid and agitated on synthetic cannabis is delaying the treatment of more worthy cases, says an emergency doctor.

The senior doctors' union has objected to what it calls an "over-the-top" privacy agreement sent to Auckland District Health Board staff after files of a patient admitted to hospital with an eel inside him were improperly accessed.