Photo: 123rf/ Georgiy Datsenko
A group of health experts say more and more people are unable to get hospital treatment for non-urgent but important health problems, but successive governments, and the Ministry of Health have blocked efforts to quantify the unmet need.
The group of surgeons, public health researchers, and health academics, led by Christchurch surgeon and founder of the Charity Hospital, Professor Phil Bagshaw, have written an editorial in the Medical Journal, published this morning.
They say hernia, cataract, gynaecological and dental surgeries are examples of operations needed by many patients who aren't getting them.
But they say that repeated calls for proper measuring of the need have been knocked back at every turn, even though they are standard practice in North America, Europe and Scandinavia.
Professor Phil Bagshaw says that until the true extent of the need is measured, the government's health reforms can never be said to be delivering.
