March 29, 2010 9:59am by David Farrar

Elective Surgery

The Government has delivered a record increase in the number of people who received elective surgery.

Last year, 134,763 patients got elective surgery funded by district health boards, which is in excess of 12,000 more than the number treated in 2008.

That’s a 10% increase, which is a hell of a lot.

The performance far exceeds National’s goal, which was an increase of 4000 a year.

Some of the biggest increases were at Waikato DHB (17 per cent), and in the Auckland region, where the Auckland DHB achieved 12 per cent and Counties Manukau 13 per cent. …

And the proportion of elective surgery the DHB contracts to the private sector remained stable last year at about 12 per cent.

This could be a lesson that there is a big difference between spending and effective spending. Tony Ryall is obviously managing the latter.