To be attributed to Pauline McGrath, Group Director of Operations, Bay of Plenty Hauora a Toi

The safety of our hapu whānau and pepi are our top priority.

Due to specialist workforce challenges in our obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G) services at Whakatāne Hospital, we will be changing to a primary birthing service from mid-January 2025. This means that people with low-risk pregnancies can birth at Whakatāne Hospital under midwife care, however, people who have increased risk of needing intervention during birth will need to birth at Tauranga Hospital. Outpatient antenatal care will continue at Whakatāne Hospital with the support of Tauranga specialists.

This temporary change is required to ensure the safe care for whānau engaging with our maternity services, while we recruit additional specialist staff. Clinical safety for pregnant people and babies is our key priority during this time.

We are committed to returning to providing secondary maternity services as soon as it is safe to do so for women and babies.

We recognise the significant impact this will have on whānau in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, obstetricians and midwives both in a hospital and community setting. We also recognise this will result in increased workload for the maternity services at Tauranga Hospital. This decision has been carefully considered and necessary to maintain safe and quality maternity care.

We will be utilising district and regional clinical capacity and are working closely with Hato Hone St John to ensure that hospital transfers are prioritised for hapu whānau as and when required.

Recruitment is ongoing both locally and internationally and we are pursuing a number of options to help return to full-service provision.

We encourage hapu whānau to discuss their options with their midwife. If you are pregnant and are not currently enrolled with a midwife or Lead Maternity Carer, we encourage you to enrol as soon as you can at www.findyourmidwife.co.nz