KEY POINTS:
The Ministry of Health has apologised for making the increase in elective surgery look bigger than it actually was.
On Sunday, Health Minister David Cunliffe released the ministry's first annual National Health Targets report, covering the year to June 30.
It said the number of people who received elective services (mainly surgery but cardiology and some outpatient procedures are included) increased by 11,864. "This is an 8.7 per cent increase over the 2006-07 against a planned 10 per cent."
But yesterday, after Herald inquiries, it emerged that the comparison was, in fact, with 2005-06, a two-year period.
Karen Orsborn, the group manager of funding, said: "The ministry apologises for the error which occurred at the editing stage and will be corrected both on the website and in hard copy."
A statement from Mr Cunliffe dated Monday reported an "8.7 per cent increase in the number of elective discharges, with almost 12,000 more electives completed in the past year."
Yet last Friday, he had stated the increase was "over the past two years" - the correct position.
National wants elective surgery to be a central issue in the election campaign as it tries to present Labour's legacy as one of declining hospital productivity and a time of patients having to be sicker to be treated.
National's health spokesman, Tony Ryall, said it was good the ministry had corrected the error but questions remained over the figures because they were different from how elective surgery had been reported previously.
The trend line on the new graph is around 11,000 to 12,000 patients higher.
The full list of inclusions and exclusions in both series of figures is unclear, but the new set has been topped up by, at least, dental treatment.
Like the old series, the new set shows a small decline in the volume of surgery from 2001 to 2005 - despite population growth - followed by significant increases.
The Government said in 2006 it was expecting an extra 10,000 elective procedures a year from its injection of an additional $60 million a year. The first full year of the package was 2007-08.
THE NUMBERS
* 2005-06 129,861 publicly funded elective surgeries and procedures, including dental care, cardiology and some outpatient services.
* The figure used in the Health Targets for comparison was that 129,861, topped up to 136,131 by orthopaedics and cataract surgeries covered by special funds.
* The number for 2007-8 was 147,995.
