The Auckland District Health Board is considering scrapping a contract enabling residents of Tahiti to have heart operations in Auckland.
The board says extra operations helped to smooth "peaks and troughs" in demand at the cardiac unit when the contact for cardiac services was signed in 1999.
But a recent demand for cardiac surgery across New Zealand means the agreement may no longer be sustainable.
However, the board says demand for children's cardiac services is not increasing as much, and it wants to keep delivering that service to Tahiti.
