More elective surgery

Stuff reports:

National pledges to increase elective surgeries to 200,000 a year over the next four years.

On Tuesday, Bill English and Health spokesman Jonathan Coleman said the plan was aimed at ensuring access to life-changing operations like hip replacements for thousands more New Zealanders.

When National came into power there were 118,000 elective surgeries each year, increasing by 1400 a year, Coleman said.

Under National the number of elective surgeries carried out by district health boards (DHBs) had increased by 56,000 to 174,000 surgeries every year. That number was to reach 178,000 this year.

This latest policy would see National increase the number of elective surgeries an average of 5500 a year over the next four years, meaning there will be 200,000 elective surgeries a year by 2022.

The increase in elective surgeries has been substantial and far in excess of population growth.

In Labour’s last seven years they increased elective surgery by just 10% which was a 0.8% increase adjusted for population. So basically no increase at all.

In National’s first seven years they increased elective surgeries by 34% which is a 23% increase adjusted for population.

Labour are good at promising how much money they’ll spend but note they almost never commit to what matters – improved outcomes or even outputs.