Southland DHB
Southland District, Gore District, Invercargill City, Queenstown-Lakes District (Arrowtown and Queenstown-Wakatipu Wards only)
Licensed institutions in this area
Southland Hospital
| Street Address: | Kew Road, Invercargill |
| Postal Address: | PO Box 828, Invercargill |
| Phone: | (03) 218 1949 |
| Facsimile: | (03) 214 2496 |
Services provided
Counselling and referral. The Southland DHB has contracts with other District Health Boards to provide termination of pregnancy services for women from the Southland District Health Board area.
First and second trimester - all grounds, other than fetal anomaly
Appointments
Referral is made for counselling only, but the social workers can assist in the choice of clinic and financial and emotional support.
Information required from the referrer
Patient information, history, US scan for gestation, high vagina and chlamydia swabs, antenatal bloods.
Certification
There are no certifying consultants in the Southland area except for Queenstown. Women referred for termination will be seen by the certifying consultants in the Hospital/Clinic in which the procedure is provided.
Counselling
Medical follow-up can be obtained on request in the gynaecological out-patient clinic. Post-operative counselling can be obtained on request through social work.
The procedure
Referral for first trimester termination is mainly to Lyndhurst Hospital in Christchurch.
Cost
The service is free for eligible patients. The charge for those ineligible for publicly-funded services is set by the hospital providing the procedure. Information about this should be obtained before proceeding to the operation.
Second trimester
Referral is mainly to facilities in Auckland.
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 they may not necessarily provide the services themselves. Accessing accurate, up-to-date and informative details about how individual District Health Boards provide these services, 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: 14 October 2008