Families warn they'll be forced to surrender care of children if "critical" shortage of respite care is not solved soon.

• EXCLUSIVE

Leading health organisations say obesity poses a greater risk to Australia than smoking.

Leading cancer researchers and doctors have announced an ambitious plan to cut the childhood cancer mortality rate to zero.

A new one-stop shop clinic is keeping patients with vascular fistulas like 16-year-old Candice Murphy off the operating table.

People seeking mental health treatment made up half of all deaths in 2011 and 2012, new figures show.

Five per cent of patients who break a hip will die in hospital, and up to 25 per cent will die within the year as a direct result of their injury, a major audit finds.

A group of women have launched a class action against Australia's largest cosmetic surgery clinic, alleging negligent breast augmentations left them with serious complications.

Blake Darragh was eight weeks old when he developed nappy rash "almost like a chemical burn". It took more five months of pain and discomfort before experts at The Children's Hospital Westmead diagnosed a very rare, fast growing and highly malignant childhood cancer.

• EXCLUSIVE

Five patients who received cornea transplants have contracted a fungal infection from tissue donations supplied by the NSW Eye Bank.

Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children will no longer be able to enrol children to childcare, with the state government closing the "conscientious objector" loophole.

Siena's family paid $250,000 for to send her to a US eating disorder clinic. Now a Sydney program is offering young patients the same treatment for a low fee.

A study has found those in disadvantaged areas are 1.7 times likely to get head and neck cancer.

The Australian health system is now spending just over $200 million each year on the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma.

Emergency departments at four Sydney hospitals have recorded significant blow-outs in the proportion of patients not treated on time.

Patients waiting for elective surgeries with some of the longest wait times, including hip and knee replacements and cataract extractions, are set to benefit from a $3 million funding injection into specific local health districts.

The alcohol industry should not be providing risk assessments to drinkers, report finds.

Questions are being raised about the way NSW Health handles psychological injury claims, with internal documents showing employee's claims are sent to the department's lawyers before medical experts.

Survivors of suicide attempts will receive supportive text messages under a landmark trial that has been announced by NSW Health.

The territory could have three or four days of conditions that could trigger the weather event.

Princess Alexandra Hospital surgeons hope the revolutionary surgery will help the 27-year-old walk again.

New rules around coughing and sneezing suggest the best way is to use the crook of your arm to prevent germs spreading further than necessary.

Many survivors of childhood cancers have to live with horrible side effects of the treatments that cured them, including infertility and heart disease.

• COMMENT

Is it time for us to change our cavalier attitude to the flu shot?

• EXCLUSIVE

Luca Raso died of a burst appendix after a GP repeatedly diagnosed gastroenteritis

The alcohol industry is spreading misinformation about the established link between alcohol and cancer, a study has found

When six-month-old Kyran Day died after he was misdiagnosed with gastroenteritis in 2013, his parents Naomi and Grant were determined to prevent other families from suffering similar preventable tragedies.

Australian-developed vaccine given to high school students for a decade is set to be replaced.

Opposition health spokesperson Walt Secord held up a photograph of the boy and called him and his parents by their first names.

The flu epidemic gripping the country has led to a nationwide shortage of anti-viral medication.