North Shore Hospital is a large public hospital in Takapuna

Takapuna

Takapuna is a central, coastal suburb of North Shore City, located in the northern North Island of New Zealand, at the beginning of a south-east-facing peninsula forming the northern side of the Waitemata Harbour...

, North Shore City, serving the northern part of the Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

 area. Located on Shakespeare Road near Lake Pupuke

Lake Pupuke

Lake Pupuke is a heart-shaped freshwater lake occupying a volcanic explosion crater between the suburbs of Takapuna and Milford on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The heart shape is a result of its formation by the linking of two circular craters - a larger one forming most of the lake...

, it is administered by the Waitemata District Health Board, serving around 47,000 people a year.

Facilities

The hospital provides up to 131 surgical

Surgery

Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...

 treatment beds and up to 163 general medical treatment beds. It has nine operating theatres

Operating theatre

An operating theater was a non-sterile, tiered theater or amphitheater in which students and other spectators could watch surgeons perform surgery...

 (one specialised in obstetric

Obstetrics

Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...

 care), an emergency care

Emergency medicine

Emergency medicine is a medical specialty in which physicians care for patients with acute illnesses or injuries which require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a variety of illnesses and undertake acute...

 centre, an intensive care

Intensive care medicine

Intensive-care medicine or critical-care medicine is a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and management of life threatening conditions requiring sophisticated organ support and invasive monitoring.- Overview :...

 (5 beds) centre and a coronary care

Cardiology

Cardiology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart . The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology...

 (8 beds) as well as a maternity

Maternity

Maternity or motherhood is the social and legal acknowledgment of the parental relationship between a mother and her child.It is specially related with the protection of the baby and the mother within and after the childbirth.-See also:...

 and a special care baby unit

Neonatal intensive care unit

A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit —also called a Special Care Nursery, newborn intensive care unit, intensive care nursery , and special care baby unit —is an intensive care unit specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants.The problem of premature and congenitally ill infants is not a...

.

The hospital also provides endoscopy, radiology

Radiology

Radiology is a medical specialty that employs the use of imaging to both diagnose and treat disease visualized within the human body. Radiologists use an array of imaging technologies to diagnose or treat diseases...

, pathology

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

, anaesthetic, gynecological, mental health

Mental health

Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

 services of Marinoto and Waimarire and cardio vascular services, there are also several other departments situated around the hospital and some services are near the hospital. Visiting specialists cover a number of further medical sub-disciplines. Two of the wards specialise in assessment, treatment and rehabilitation

Physical medicine and rehabilitation

Physical medicine and rehabilitation , physiatry or rehabilitation medicine, is a branch of medicine that aims to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to those with physical impairments or disabilities. A physician having completed training in this field is referred to as a...

 of older patients

Old age

Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle...

 over 65 years of age.

Funding, Staffing

In 2007, North Shore Hospital has repeatedly reported 100% occupancy rates and difficulties in finding enough staff. This is alleged to be partly due to North Shore City's affluence, with the catchment area having some of the highest average incomes in New Zealand, as well as scoring high on other social indicators. As the District Health Board funding scheme distributes money based on these indicators, it has been claimed that it receives much less funding per population served than hospitals in other areas of the country.

The issues with staff shortages and overcrowding, repeatedly discussed in the press during the middle of 2007, have led two North Shore National MPs to inquire into the issue, noting that a 'crisis of confidence' had developed, which was generating more concern from locals 'than anything else in recent times'.