KEY POINTS:
New Zealand has come bottom of a survey of seven countries for heart patients' access to potentially life-saving surgery.
The Ministry of Health draft report says the "critical failing" is disturbing because people are likely to die if they do not get heart surgery.
Canada and Northern Ireland both had access rates more than 50 per cent better than our own. England's rate was nearly 40 per cent better. While the report said New Zealand fared worse than Australia, it did not include comparative figures.
Cardiac surgery rates also fluctuated widely around the country, a finding which National Party health spokesman Tony Ryall slammed as "healthcare by postcode".
Of the five New Zealand health boards with cardiac surgical services, only Otago had a consistent rate of access comparable to other first world countries.
Staff shortages in the health sector, especially in intensive care unit nursing, were fingered as a major factor in the country's poor performance.
Auckland District Health Board had 25 full-time equivalent nursing vacancies in its ICU - a quarter of the board's total FTE nursing vacancies, the report said.
Anaesthetists were also in short supply. The time commitment required for anaesthetists to do cardiac surgical work was greater than other surgical work, but was not always paid accordingly, it said.
Wellington's Capital and Coast District Health Board was suffering the worst anaesthetist shortages, with just five to six cardiac surgery anaesthetists employed. The ideal number would be 11 or 12, the report said.
Cancellations of cardiac surgery was also a significant drain on public health money, the report said - the cost of lost theatre time estimated at more than $25 per minute.
Mr Ryall told the Herald the findings were "virtually the same" as those in another report received by the Government in 2003. "This is a shocking indictment of nine years of neglect. And New Zealand can't afford to fluff around for another nine years while some committee works it out. We've actually got to have a political commitment to dealing with this."
He said the wide variance in care in each region was not up to New Zealanders' expectations. New Zealand was spending $6 billion a year more on health than it was nine years ago - a sum which should translate to equal care for all, he said.
"In a country like New Zealand, you should be able to expect the likelihood of getting treatment is about the same wherever you live."
The report recommends:
* A "planned and continued" increase in resourcing over the next five years.
* A nationally agreed "prioritisation score" for patients for cardiac surgery.
* Categories of urgency and maximum time-frames for surgery established.
* Weekly reporting of cardiac surgery volumes by providers.
* A Ministry of Health sponsored taskforce be established to make sure the recommendations are carried out.
Health Minister David Cunliffe said Mr Ryall's comments were turning the "extremely complex service" of life-saving cardiac surgery into a political football - a situation that did not help patients.
He had met the Cardiac Service Group last week and expected to see its final report as soon as it was completed.
Cardiac surgery rates in similar countries, relative to New Zealand:
Canada +78 per cent
Northern Ireland +52 per cent
England +38 per cent
Scotland +29 per cent
Wales +27 per cent
