The information supplied to Labour covered 21 hospital services that involved specialist consultations. Nine showed an improved trend and 12 a worsening trend in the three years to the end of 2014.
Orthopaedics towered above the rest, with a four-fold increase in the number of people declined their first consultation with a hospital orthopaedic specialist.
It's important to note Labour's Annette King, who released the information about specialist consultations, does not blame the DHB for the increase in patients declined their first consultation with a hospital orthopaedic specialist. Boards around the country are under incredible financial pressure, she says.
Mount Maunganui GP Dr Tony Farrell says doctors are getting the clear message that there is no more money, despite the growing demand from an ageing population - people who have paid a lot of taxes over the years.
Organisations supporting the elderly also hinted at the growing number of retired people moving to the Bay.
If, as they suggest, health boards are struggling to keep up with the demands of an ageing population then some serious planning is needed to cater for the needs of the Baby Boomers - people born between 1946 and 1964 - who are reaching pension age in growing numbers.
People are also living longer while the number of people contributing through tax is predicted to fall.
We are entering an era where the working population could struggle to contribute enough through taxes to meet the costs associated with an ageing population.
Figures released in 2012 show 22,000 people over 65 were living in Tauranga - almost 19 per cent of the total population and about 3 per cent higher than the national average.
Interestingly, ensuring people are healthy is seen by one expert as the key to maintaining economic stability in the face of an ageing population.
David Bloom, Harvard's Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography, who visited New Zealand last October, says policy-makers need to act sooner rather than later to use an ageing workforce to the economy's advantage.
In recent times there has been a shift in macro-economic thinking, which has long recognised that the growing wealth of a country inevitably leads to a more healthy population.
Now a population's health is seen as a greater contributor to economic growth than previously thought.
Bloom says an additional 10 years to life expectancy boosts a country's annual economic growth between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent per capita.
"The main asset people have is their labour, and the value of that asset is their health."
If the key to providing economic stability is for people to work longer then perhaps policy-makers should assess health funding levels.
How many of the patients who have been denied a specialist assessment would be able to work longer and contribute more to the economy if they could get the surgery their GP says they need?
