Bay of Plenty DHB
Far North District, Whangarei District, Kaipara District
Licensed institutions
Tauranga Hospital
| Street Address: | Cameron Road, Tauranga |
| Postal Address: | Private Bag 12024 |
| Phone: | (07) 579 8000 |
| Facsimile: | (07) 579 8487 |
Whakatane Hospital
| Street Address: | Garaway Street, Whakatane |
| Postal Address: | PO Box 241, Whakatane |
| Phone: | (07) 306 0999 |
| Facsimile: | (07) 307 0451 |
Services provided
First trimester
Bay of Plenty District Health Board has a contract with Health Waikato to perform first trimester pregnancy terminations for the eligible women in the Health Board District.
Referrals
Referrals can be made by GPs, Family Planning or the BOP Sexual Health Clinic. The appointments need to be made by the referring clinician.
Appointments
This service is accessed through a centralised booking office at Waikato Hospital, which organises terminations at Waikato, Tokoroa and Thames Hospitals. The booking office is open 8am to 4:30pm Monday-Friday:
| Booking: | Booking Coordinator, GOPD, Private Bag 3200, Hamilton |
| Phone: | (07) 839 8957 or for bookings 0800 32 8271 |
| Facsimile: | (07) 839 8971 |
Information required from the referrer
NHI number, patient contact details, gestation date scanning, first ante-natal bloods and STI screening swabs.
Certification
Certification is provided by doctors in the units.
Counselling
Counselling is available to every patient, and is routine unless the patient declines. Post-abortion counselling can be provided on request.
The procedure
The procedure is suction curettage under local anaesthetic. General anaesthetic can be arranged on rare occasions for certain medical reasons. Medical abortion is not available.
Follow-up
Follow-up is usually with the referring clinician, but can be provided by the unit on request.
Cost
The service is free for eligible patients. The charge for those ineligible for publicly-funded services is approximately $1300.
Second trimester - general grounds
Second trimester pregnancy terminations are performed in Auckland. This service is provided by three private gynaecologists in Auckland (see Auckland DHB second trimester service).
The access is provided through social workers in Tauranga and Whakatane:
| Pregnancy Options Social Workers in Tauranga: |
(07) 579 8460 |
| Maternal Social Worker in Whakatane: |
(07) 306 0833 |
Counselling is provided by social workers at these two services and is available to all women who request this either after the termination or at any stage thereafter.
Second trimester - fetal anomaly
The Bay of Plenty District Health Board has not provided any information about how and where a pregnancy termination service is available for women who have pregnancies with serious fetal abnormality. In the first instance we imagine this service is accessed through local specialist obstetricians.
DHB responsibilities
All District Health Boards are required to provide termination of pregnancy services "for those women who meet the criteria provided by the Crimes Act 1961 and the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977". See Ministry of Health. However accessing accurate, up-to-date and informative details about how individual District Health Boards provide these services, or whether they provide them, has been extremely difficult. The information provided here is the best that we have been able to obtain for this district to date. We will continue to update the website as we obtain further information.
Last Updated: 3 May 2005