Bariatric service — Auckland (North and West)

The bariatric service for Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora Waitematā provides services and surgery designed to help improve health and wellbeing through weight reduction and treatment of metabolic co-morbidities such as diabetes and sleep apnoea. Bariatric surgery is part of our general surgery service.

On this page

Contact us

For all enquiries to the bariatric service:

If you would like support from our Māori health team, contact:

  • Māori Health Services - He Kamaka Waiora — phone 09 486 8324 (extension 3553)

Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm

If you would like support from our Pacific health team, contact:

  • Pacific Health Tautai Fakataha — phone 021 726 076

Monday to Friday, 8am to 4:30pm.

Where to find us

Bariatric services are at:

North Shore Hospital
Shakespeare Road
Takapuna
Auckland 0620.

Services we provide

Obesity is one of the main causes of poor health. Surgery is an effective treatment for those who are severely or morbidly obese and have been unable to lose weight and keep it off.

Bariatric surgery is also called obesity, metabolic or weight loss surgery and it refers to operations designed to help reduce a person’s weight and improve their health.

Bariatric surgery includes:

  • gastric bypass
  • gastric sleeve
  • revisional surgery.

Procedures result in restricting the amount of food you can eat, absorb or both.

Regional bariatric surgery criteria 

Due to limited resources, bariatric surgery is offered only to patients who meet the following bariatric regional acceptance criteria.

Agreed BMI criteria

  • A BMI greater than 70 renders a patient ineligible for the surgical pathway.
  • A BMI between 35 and 60 is acceptable.
  • Patients with a BMI between 60 and 70 will require support to reduce their BMI to below 60 before being accepted onto the surgical pathway for long‐term benefit.

Agreed prioritisation categories

  • Patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes for less than 5 years who are not on insulin.
  • Patients requiring weight management for life‐extending treatments, such as transplantation, cardiac surgery, cancer treatment, or sleep apnoea (with a proven CPAP benefit on sleep study), or those with poor diabetic control (with a referral from an endocrinologist).
  • Primary obesity referrals will be declined.
  • Patients aged over 60 years old will be declined.

In the meantime, if you do not meet criteria, we suggest seeing your main healthcare provider to be referred to a weight loss service.

Weight loss services

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Healthcare providers can send an electronic referral to the Waitematā outpatient dietitians. Patients will then be invited to the next available group sessions.

Dietetic education

Services are available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 8:30am to 12:30pm between February and September at Park Avenue, Grafton.

Contacts:

Cost:

  • $10 per visit if referred by a health professional
  • $50 for the initial consultation and $20 per follow-up visit if self-referred.

This 12‐week programme includes weekly catchups with a Healthy lifestyle advisor, as well as:

  • health education workshops
  • nutrition sessions
  • physical activity sessions (gold coin)
  • home-based exercise programmes
  • support from community gyms (YMCA and CLM).

Patient resources

Bariatric surgical options explains each surgery offered at Health NZ — Waitematā. Read this before attending surgical clinic and note down any questions you would like to ask your surgeon during the consultation.

Bariatric surgical optionsPDF1.6 MB

Patient information pack is for patients who have been waitlisted for surgery. You will be booked into the Clinical nurse specialist clinic to go over this information.

Bariatric programme guide for patientsDOCX693 KB

Bariatric diet information contains resources created by the Bariatric dietitians. The information contained in this section is helpful before and after surgery. Coming back to read through this information as you progress through the stages of the bariatric diet is recommended.

Dietetic education

Referral information

Talk with your healthcare provider to discuss your options if you wish to be referred for bariatric surgery.