Family Planning accepts that six weeks is too long for women to wait for the long-acting contraceptive implant Jadelle.
A review of maternity services in Counties Manukau, led by former Health and Disability Commissioner Professor Ron Paterson, was told teen parents and others are waiting up to six weeks for appointments with a doctor at the Family Planning clinic in Manukau City, and two weeks to see a nurse.
The review panel said family planning services in the area needed immediate attention from the district's health board and the Health Ministry.
A nurse told the panel of delays in community health services for teenage mothers with newborns, one of whom, because of funding delays at the DHB, faced waiting several months for a Jadelle arm implant from her GP.
"She is already having unsafe sex four weeks post-delivery and they have not given her Depo [Provera, a three-month contraceptive injection]."
Family Planning's national medical adviser, Dr Christine Roke, said the Manukau clinic had the organisation's longest waits for Jadelle in Auckland - six weeks - which she attributed to huge demand for the implant nationally, Manukau staff resignations, and the need to train new employees how to implant Jadelle.
Dr Roke said Family Planning had no formal target for a maximum waiting time for Jadelle. Two to three weeks was typical.
"We certainly would like to see it be much less than [six weeks]."