Heavy users of a group of pain medicines prescribed to nearly 400,000 New Zealanders a year have been warned about its links to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Northland doctor Lance O'Sullivan says his upbringing helped drive his efforts to lift the quality of healthcare for Maori.

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.

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

Older mothers and women wanting more control of their lives are responsible for the growing rate of New Zealand children being born by caesarean section each year.

Research into infertility, healthy eating and the cause of allergies are among health studies to receive more than $58 million this year.

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.

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.

Up to 1000 people could die of the human form of "mad cow" disease through infected blood given to them in British hospitals, ministers have been told.

When little Lewis Railton was nearly killed by a rare and deadly stroke, his parents knew the road to recovery wouldn't be smooth.

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.