mjohnston@nzdoctor.co.nz

New treatment at Auckland City Hospital expected to improve and extend lives of people with a rare tumour 

COVID-19 set in motion health­care changes in the eastern Bay of Plenty that have been wel­comed by rural patients and won the providers an award.

Tāmaki Health is understood to be up for sale, four years after Sydney-based Mercury Capital bought 49 per cent stake in a business that had been controlled by the Patel family

Psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks should have been prevented from prac­tising in 1977, the Medical Coun­cil says, as part of its apology to victims of Dr Leeks’ unmodified paediatric elec­troconvulsive therapy.

Ministry of Health to “proactively” release DHB vaccination plans that it has withheld for 13 weeks

Practices have been urged to explain fees to patients before starting a telehealth consultation, after research found some had refused to pay 

Stephen Child, of health insurer Southern Cross, is questioning the huge range of private specialist fees for procedures, faced by patients and their insurers

Provisional approval has been granted for a second COVID-19 vaccine to be used in New Zealand, but the Janssen jab is likely to play second fiddle to Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine 

To encourage hesitant patients to accept COVID-19 vaccination, GPs have been urged to focus on feelings first. Leave the facts until later

The Health and Disability Review Transition Unit has sent a questionnaire to PHOs seeking information on exactly how they work, to help design the proposed locality networks