Ruth Hill

Senior doctors and dentists have walked off the job en masse today, for the first time ever, over their deadlocked pay negotiations. Te Whatu Ora, Health New Zealand says about 250 planned care… Audio

Our health reporter Ruth Hill is at the picket line at Wellington Regional Hospital and is with us now. Audio

Doctors from India who have no option but to work in call centres and drive Ubers are calling for more help from the Government to get registered in New Zealand.

The Medical Council has recently… Audio

General practices are ailing, if not terminally ill in some cases. Nearly 90 percent of family doctors are under major financial pressure, with a third actually losing money in the last year. That's… Audio

Acute shortages of trainee specialists are fuelling burnout among senior hospital doctors, whose own ranks are thinning.

After decades of an ad hoc approach to critical workforce training - and a… Audio

A new report is blaming "accountability-free" General Practice funding for the decline in GP work hours, and a significant decrease in the GP-to-population ratio.

The study is co-authored by two… Audio

Nurses warn the latest pay deal covering 35,000 hospital nurses and midwives has turned the pay gap with general practice nurses into a chasm and patients will suffer.

They say it's not even that… Audio

The number of sick and disabled children waiting longer than four months for assessment or treatment has blown out by more than 600 percent in the last year.

Paediatric specialists warn wait times… Audio

Families of children with speech and language problems fear cuts by Massey University will add to the critical shortage of therapists.

The university - which reported an $8.8 million dollar deficit… Audio

Severe acute hospitalisations for babies and young children in Auckland spiked in mid-July, as they were hit hard by flu, RSV and other respiratory viruses.

Doctors fear some will suffer long-term… Audio

A midwifery student says she was horrified at how much responsibility she was expected to take on, as trainees are used to plug the profession's 40 percent workforce shortage.

With more than four out… Audio

One in three patients referred for specialist appointments have been waiting more than four months, according to Te Whatu Ora's latest data.

However, GPs warn many people aren't even being counted.

… Audio

A major computer outage at Wellington and Wairarapa hospitals since four o'clock this morning has forced the cancellation and delay of many appointments and procedures.

Te Whatu Ora says outpatient… Audio

The former Police Commissioner, Mike Bush, will this week take over leadership of all Youth Justice and Care and Protection residences, following two serious allegations of Oranga Tamariki staff… Audio

An expert on landslides and natural hazards warns thousands more New Zealand homes may become uninsurable in the near future. But quantifying risk from natural hazards is a fraught business -… Audio

Some cancer patients struggling with the cost of travelling to other regions for care are choosing not to have treatment. Patient advocates say the National Travel Assistance Scheme - which subsidises… Audio

Publicly-available health data on wait times for emergency departments, operations and cancer treatment are now six months out of date, since Te Whatu Ora was forced to pull inaccurate figures from… Audio

Spinal muscular atrophy is the most common genetic cause of death in New Zealand babies without treatment but it's not included in the newborn screening programme.

Doctors warn that waiting until… Audio

The equivalent of nine ambulances a day are unable to respond to call-outs because they're stuck outside emergency departments, unable to drop off patients.

It's known as ramping - the time crews… Audio

"Nothing to do with us." That was the conclusion of Crown Law staff after "a cursory glance" at new evidence strongly suggesting Alan Hall was innocent.

Hall had his conviction for the 1985 murder of… Audio