The controversial use of chaperones to oversee doctors accused of serious misconduct, including sexual offences, is being reviewed by the Medical Board of Australia.  

An annual survey of admitted patients in NSW has indicated "clear areas for improvement".

Nearly 50 doctors accused of violating sexual boundaries are working under a controversial chaperone system that allegedly failed three patients last year.

When Bob Hawke cried on television about his daughter's drug use, Australia was a world leader in its approach to harm minimisation. Head of the Victorian Drug and Alcohol Association, Sam Biondo laments that we've gone backwards since then.

The outbreak has rocked the industry and cut profits, Australia's biggest melon grower says.

"Do patients need to be informed?" The outrageous suggestion tears at the edges of an extraordinary week for the state's health system that saw announced the exposure of three critical medical errors at three separate Sydney hospitals.

Australians are paying five times more than Britons for medical care, causing many people with chronic health conditions to forgo treatment because it's too expensive.

 In the three months between the post-miscarriage ultrasound that first found the mass in her abdomen and the surgery that finally identified it, the cancer grew from six centimetres to more than eleven, sprouted cancer-spreading fluid and caused her increasing pain. So when Bronwyn Grout woke from surgery to learn both her ovaries had been removed and she had a stage three ovarian cancer— and she would be lucky to survive five years—she was scared but not entirely surprised. The surprise came later.

A cancer patient caught up in the latest chemotherapy dosing scandal at a Sydney hospital said a senior hospital staff member told her not to "run to the media".

Complaints against Medibank are escalating at a stunning rate.

A woman giving birth in her 60s might incite shock and awe today. But within 50 years, there's a good chance it will be reasonably common.

More than 80 people have been struck down by a national salmonella outbreak as health authorities warn pregnant women, infants and the elderly to avoid eating rockmelons.

Failures by senior management and a rising number of patients caught up in St Vincent's hospital's chemotherapy dosing scandal has been revealed in a damning report.

In the first large scale study of depression, scientists have pinpointed 15 locations in our DNA that are associated with depression.

NSW health minister Jillian Skinner has copped a fierce barrage of criticism as a cluster of major hospital scandals were laid bare in a single day.

Health Minister Jillian Skinner fronted the media on Tuesday to deliver the interim report into the tragic errors.

Veteran health official Beth Wilson was floored by the response she received when she raised her concerns with a Victorian hospital executive about a doctor accused of sexual assault.

They may be the most common drug in medicine cabinets across the country, but statins have been bumped from the top spot in the latest ranking of Australia's most costly drugs.

An expert report has provided a blueprint for radical reforms to Medicare.

Screening for a serious congenital condition may fail to identify babies at risk of developing poor skills in primary school, a world-first study suggests.

Thousands of Australians have wound up addicted to opioids after being prescribed them to treat chronic pain.

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The federal government can't shy away from tackling Australia's rapidly rising healthcare costs.

A new study finds that the distress experienced by many transgender people comes from the social stigma, not from being transgender.

Specialist fees will be published and consumers will review their quality of care in a new rate-my-doctor website that has angered the medical profession.

A pharmacist's dual role as retailer and healthcare professional had blurred the line between treating people as customers or patients, a review has heard.

There's a good chance this news will make you groan with guilt. But then again, it might also get you moving and prolong your life.

For years the 12-year-old has undergone a battery of tests, but a new lab hopes to find the answer.

A social media craze that swept the world two years ago has helped to fund a medical breakthrough for those living with motor neurone disease.

A woman has died in a mental health inpatient unit on the day news broke that two babies had been given the wrong gas at the same hospital.