You can’t just cheer up people who have depression. There’s a key role for antidepressants

The NHS is planning to offer patients art, music and gardening classes rather than antidepressants. Nice idea, but it won’t work, writes psychotherapist Lucy Cavendish

NHS fines mothers for claiming free prescriptions while pregnant

Pregnant women are entitled to free medication, but without a maternity exemption certificate they face bills of hundreds of pounds

A message to the NHS: disabled people like having sex, too

A sexual health checkup became an ordeal – and underlined the accessibility issues people such as me face, says Cathy Reay, a writer on disability and relationships

‘It’s not medical tourism, it’s desperation’: rising number of Britons resort to treatment abroad

Despair over NHS waiting lists is driving people who could never afford private care in UK to countries like Lithuania

What would you do to support the NHS? My mother gave up her festive tipple

From refusing a whisky to not having her cataracts done, my mother’s quality of life has been irrevocably reduced by the party that has whittled away our health service, writes Zoe Williams

My US hellscape or broken Britain: where would you rather seek healthcare?

It’s insurance renewal time again – when I discuss cover in New York, hear tales of NHS woe in the UK, and wonder which is worse, says Guardian columnist Emma Brockes

Maternity care is not on a journey of obvious improvement

History suggests that reports exposing NHS failings do not banish the culture that harms babies and mothers

Side Effects by David Haslam review – what do we want from healthcare?

The ex-chair of Nice considers the spiralling costs of medical treatment and asks how we might fix a creaking NHS

GPs to prescribe walking and cycling in bid to ease burden on NHS

Suggestion of activities to help improve mental and physical health part of wider movement of ‘social prescribing’

Are there enough concrete commitments in the women’s health strategy to truly ‘reset the dial’?

Analysis: While elements of the strategy are thoughtful and will make a meaningful difference, others have either appeared out of the blue or slipped from view entirely

New women’s health strategy for England aims to end decades of inequality

Among proposals to ‘reset the dial’ on women’s health are training for doctors and hubs across the NHS

Dizziness, headache, dry skin … how to spot heatstroke – and avoid it in the first place

Are you just wilting a little, suffering from heat exhaustion or risking death from full-blown heatstroke? Here’s how to tell the difference and protect yourself, your friends and family – and your pets

Better ways to get better: the radical GP changing lives

A pioneering surgery in Brighton is pushing the boundaries of what patients can expect, offering dance classes, art and foraging. Dr Laura Marshall-Andrews tells Eva Wiseman why her approach helps people – and the NHS

‘One woman took out 13 of her own teeth’: the terrifying truth about Britain’s dental crisis

In England, only a third of adults – and half of children – now have access to an NHS dentist. As those in pain turn to charity-run clinics for help, can anything stop the rot?

Racism in UK maternity care risks safety of Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity women – study

Participants in charity’s year-long inquiry describe being ignored and feeling patronised and dehumanised