Health Minister Tony Ryall says there is unmet need for elective surgery, but the Government is taking the right steps to reduce it.
The comment came in response to calls for an independent, scientific measurement of the level of need for non-urgent surgery.
The Health Funds Association, which represents health insurers, says its recent survey shows 170,000 New Zealanders were told they need elective surgery but couldn't get on a waiting list.
Spokesperson Roger Styles told Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon programme on Wednesday those people suffer and it is costing the country money.
"A quarter of those that were waiting had taken time off work, another quarter had had unpaid help or assistance, usually from family members."
Phil Bagshaw, a clinician at the Christchurch Charity Hospital, says an independent study is needed to determine how many people need elective surgery but can't get it.
"In my view, what we require now is an independent mechanism that's run regularly so that we can see what's happening to the unmet need."
Mr Ryall told the programme the Government is set to do that.
"We are moving to measure part of unmet need which we call referred unmet need - we're starting to do that from 1 July. You could put a lot of time and effort into this - the key thing, though, is to increase the amount of surgery New Zealanders are getting and that's what we're doing."
Mr Ryall maintains the solution is continuing to provide more operations. He concedes that access to the surgery varies between regions, but says that is being reduced.
Labour's health spokesperson Annette King says there is an increasing number of people with high levels of disability who have been refused surgery.
"And then when I look at the figures, there is such variation around New Zealand at DHBs on where and how you can get an operation. We really need to look at this so we can get some consistency across New Zealand."
