HealthShare, established in 2001, is a regional Shared Services Agency jointly owned by Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Lakes, Tairawhiti and Taranaki District Health Boards (shareholding DHBs). Until mid 2011 HealthShare operated as a single function shared service agency with the primary purpose of assisting the Shareholding DHBs in meeting their statutory and contractual obligations to monitor the delivery and performance of services through the provision of routine third party audit programmes. From August 2011 HealthShare has taken on an expanded role and now provides operational support to the shareholding DHBs in a number of areas identified as benefiting from a regional solution. Where HealthShare provides services to non-shareholding DHBs, (eg. third party audit and assurance) this support is provided under contract. Shareholding DHBs determine the services that HealthShare will provide, and the level of these services, on an annual basis. These determinations are made through the Regional Services Plan, DHB Annual Plans and regional business case processes.