13 September 2023

Cocaine use is up significantly in New Zealand, while use of MDMA and methamphetamine are down slightly, according to a new report from the Drug Foundation

Reporter Alan Perrott considers the impact of electoral pickleball, the curse of good intentions and why we can’t all just get along

Primla Khar is a specialist GP at Papakura East Medical Centre. She also works as a medical educator for the RNZCGP and has special interests in cultural and ethnic wellbeing, women and youth empowerment, and community advocacy

Alan Perrott talks to two doctors whose fabulously impractical creations are about to WOW audiences in Wellington

Deputy health and disability commissioner Deborah James has recommended the Medical Council review a locum GP’s competence after he “mismanaged” a melanoma diagnosis

GPs keen to see urgent action on workforce and funding can now see a plan, but it’s a plan to do the policy work for a plan – and it has been slated. Changes can still be made in the short term but these will be in the existing funding settings, as Stephen Forbes reports

Practice nurses last month voted to accept a new deal that brings some relief to pay packets but is not expected to stem the flow of nurses to higher-paid jobs in public hospitals

An independent review of the health reforms’ progress is to start shortly but will not be completed until after the election

Mental health academics have noted the benefits of ketamine for some forms of depression, but urged caution about more widespread use of the drug

The health risk from blood shortages is now much higher than the risk of getting variant Creutzfeldt-Jackob disease from transfusions, public health expert Michael Baker says