Waitemata District Health Board (DHB) has produced a Health Needs Assessment for the five Auckland Council wards and eight local boards of its district. This Needs Assessment has been produced in response to planning for a locality based approach to health care. It provides information on population characteristics, health determinants, indicators of health need and health utilisation, and available health services within each local board and ward.
This is the first time that much of this data has been available for areas smaller than the DHB boundaries. The populations and health needs of the wards and local boards differ significantly from each other. Health Needs Assessment for each of these areas is therefore important as part of a locality approach to health care planning and delivery.