Stories by Karen Brown

A community-based midwife failed to refer a woman with clear risk factors to a specialist, a report has found.

Researchers have come out fighting at claims made in response to their findings that babies are more at risk during birth if a midwife rather than a doctor is in charge.

Family doctors want changes to maternity funding so doctors and midwives can work more closely together. Audio

Babies are more at risk during birth if a midwife rather than a doctor is in charge, according to new research.

Health officials have warned the government against any further delay to the rollout of national screening for bowel cancer.

A seven-year-old with cerebral palsy was given 10 times the correct dose of a medicine for two months because of a pharmacy error.

The maker of a faulty hip implant says key arguments by patients who want to sue it for compensation are unsound and unworkable.

Forty patients who received faulty hip implants have told the High Court they should be able to sue the maker of the devices.

Members of the health system are pushing to have DHB votes moved to the same time as the general election.

A teenager with disabilities who drowned at a care facility in 2014 should never have been left alone, the public health watchdog has found.

Up to 400,000 people living in Waikato can now speak to a family doctor online at night or over the weekend.

A decades-long shortage of donor sperm has become worse, a leading fertility expert says.

New Zealand should look at making it mandatory for food labels to include the amount of added sugar, the Royal Society says.

Declaring a man medically fit just 24 hours after a heart attack so he could be sent to a psychiatric hospital breached his rights, the public health watchdog says.

A better method is needed to determine which foods and drinks are too unhealthy to be marketed to children, say health experts.

Nurses need to be a part of decision making for health strategies in New Zealand, the head of the International Council of Nurses says.

A toddler who died from a bacterial infection and pneumonia in Dunedin Hospital did not get the care she needed, the health watchdog says.

Many district health boards still face multi-million dollar budget blowouts, new figures show. Audio

Patients with deadly lung cancer say they must be next in line for access to the hotly debated and expensive drug Keytruda.

Politicians must be principled and brave on the question of voluntary euthanasia, Lecretia Seales' widower says. Audio

Cancer specialists want better access to drugs to extend the lives of people with an incurable type of blood cancer. Audio

Up to half of public hospital doctors are feeling exhausted and have symptoms of burnout, according to a new survey. Audio

The deficits of the country's 20 district health boards are almost three times higher than was budgeted for, a government financial watchdog says.

District health boards face costs of more than $1 million to deliver long-awaited new melanoma drugs to patients.

The anti-cancer vaccine Gardasil will be free for all boys and girls, and access to a vaccine against chicken pox will be widened.