Stories by Karen Brown

A drug company head says the government should hold an inquiry into the prices pharmaceutical firms charge for breast cancer drugs.

Bitterly disappointed breast cancer patients accused the government today of interfering in the work of a select committee.

A prominent senior doctor says he's worried about patient safety as junior doctors vote for yet another strike later this month. The doctors' union and DHBs are at an impasse in their row over a pay…

Junior doctors have withdrawn the notice for their next strike, blaming a technical problem.

Major drug firms attacked Pharmac today saying breast cancer patients are dying while they wait for cancer drugs, but the agency says its funding decisions are based on evidence.

It's that time of year again - time for the annual flu jab well before winter sets in.

A bouquet of flowers lay forlorn on the front steps of the Christchurch home of the man who died in a stand-off with police early yesterday.

In the early hours of the terror attacks on Friday two weeks ago, some believed that there could have been a gunman inside Christchurch Hospital itself, a health executive says.

A pathologist who led body identification in Christchurch after the shootings says the process could not have been done more quickly.

Some doctors and nurses will never forget what they saw and did in the city on the day of the terror shootings, says a primary healthcare leader in Christchurch.

A senior doctor is urging the public to talk to family members to find out if they have ever had bowel cancer.

A Christchurch expert in the medicine of older people is mourning a former colleague who died in Friday's terror attack.

Resthomes say they are exhausted by the constant struggle to find nurses to replace those they lose to better paid jobs in public hospitals.

Specialists say faster and better care is needed for the condition which can wreck relationships and result in unemployment and disability.

Hospital bosses want a national campaign to counter what they say are the damaging messages being put out by anti-vaccination lobbyists.

Bowel cancer statistics highlight wide variations in the way patients with bowel cancer are treated in public hospitals.

Some pharmacists are scrambling to take cough medicines off pharmacy shelves following a toughening up by the Health Ministry.

Junior doctors will sit down with health boards today in a last-ditch attempt to resolve their employment row as their latest 48-hour strike comes to an end.

Auckland District Health Board is facing a major budget blowout and an unplanned deficit of more than $10 million this financial year.

Junior doctors will be back on strike at 8am this morning for 48 hours. Audio

District health boards are accusing the junior doctors' union of making statements in public and to its members that are inaccurate and misleading and or deceptive. Audio

Some senior doctors are calling for an end to the row between junior doctors and district health boards, saying each strike is more damaging to patient care and is unacceptable.

From today tens of thousands of New Zealanders with hepatitis C can receive a free drug that will cure them.

The wife of a terminally ill cancer patient, who had to wait 13 hours in hospital to be flown for care, told the Health Minister today that the government has failed them.

A terminal cancer patient, who says he would have died before being treated via the public health system, is being backed by the Cancer Society in calling for a national cancer plan.