NZ lags in health efficiency

By JO-MARIE BROWN and AGENCIES

New Zealand is ranked 80th in health system efficiency by the World Health Organisation.

This finding is based on a survey of 191 countries measuring how successful nations are at turning expenditure into positive health outcomes that improve life expectancy.

Mediterranean countries dominate the top 10, and New Zealand lags behind Britain (24), Australia (39), the United States (72), Nicaragua (74), Brazil (78) and Trinidad and Tobago (79).

The 10 least-efficient health systems are found in African nations. The World Health organisation (WHO) attributes their rankings to civil unrest and the high rate of HIV and Aids among their populations.

The information used to estimate healthcare efficiency was taken from 1993 to 1997.

The survey's authors said the information did not measure the quality of healthcare - it was more "an efficiency index charting what you get out compared to what you put in".

Government spending on health was cited as an important factor but some countries needed to simply reallocate money within their health systems to improve people's health and become more efficient, the authors said.

However, WHO said that a population's health did not depend solely on money.

The diets of the top ten countries - including Italy, France, and Spain - were rich in anti-oxidants from fruit and vegetables, olive oil and red wine, which greatly improved the health of the population.

Oman in the Middle East was ranked most "efficient" because it had dramatically reduced child mortality rates from 310 to 18 per 1000 live births over the past 40 years.

While New Zealand ranked just ahead of the Czech Republic and Yemen, Waitemata District Health Board chief executive Dwayne Crombie believed that we had an efficient system.

"I think it's run quite efficiently but certainly from the outcome measures, we don't do as well in terms of life expectancy."

Dr Crombie said the high rate of road fatalities, youth suicides, bowel cancer and melanoma, combined with the gap between Maori and non-Maori, meant that our life expectancy was not as high as it could be.

"That's probably what's dragging us down rather than inefficiency in terms of spending," he said.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation spokeswoman Sue Moroney said that our health system was "terribly inefficient" when it came to staffing issues.

A lack of workforce planning over the past decade had led to a severe nursing shortage.

Patients were either being turned away or receiving less than ideal care, which Ms Moroney believed was an inefficient use of the healthcare dollar.

"That ranking doesn't surprise me because we see inefficiencies all the time in our health system," Ms Moroney said.

Health Minister Annette King did not wish to comment yesterday as she had not yet read the report.

Opposition National Party leader Jenny Shipley was Health Minister during the period the survey was taken.