Health Minister Andrew Little talks to reporters after being shouted down by striking healthcare workers during a protest rally at Parliament last year. PHOTO/GETTY...

  Wairarapa Emergency Department head Dr Norman Gray says the hospital is experiencing catastrophic staffing shortages. PHOTO/MARY ARGUE Mary Argue [email protected] Desperation is driving Wairarapa Hospital whistle-blowers to...

  NZNO Wairarapa delegate Lucy McLaren outside the hospital emergency department.  PHOTO/HELEN HOLT Wairarapa’s emergency department had only one nurse on for part of the Sunday...

  Patients struggle for appointments at GPs. PHOTO/STOCK.ADOBE.COM HELEN HOLT [email protected] The global GP crisis is hitting home, with just one Wairarapa clinic taking on new patients. Of the...

  Smoke billowing out of a Masterton chimney during the first day of snow on the ranges this year. PHOTO/GRACE PRIOR   Air pollution-related deaths are on...

HELEN HOLT [email protected] A Wairarapa epidemiologist is concerned covid complacency will mean the second omicron wave is bigger than the last. The new, dominant covid variant BA.5...

  Wellington Free Ambulance is asking residents to consider other means of treatment. PHOTO/FILE MARY ARGUE [email protected] An earlier than expected spike in 111 calls has Wairarapa’s first...

  HELEN HOLT [email protected] High hospital rates in recent weeks signal Wairarapa is approaching its second wave of omicron. The region has recorded a significant jump in hospitalisations...

Health workers are urging people to get vaccinated against the flu, because this year’s strain is expected to hit worse than previous years.

The husband of a Masterton woman whose terminal breast cancer was misdiagnosed says there is no accountability in the health system.