Health Minister Shane Reti's office has quashed rumours that Dargaville Hospital in Northland could be closed down, saying any such speculation is "utterly wrong".
An 80-year-old woman who has agreed to pay her landlord extra to clear her rent debt is one of a growing number of struggling pensioners, budgeting advisers say.
Public health experts fear critical programmes for disease prevention and detection could be lost or downgraded with looming budget cuts at the National Public Health Service.
When a woman’s car was stolen, she decided to take matters into her own hands and wrote a letter to the person she believed was involved, demanding money.