KEY POINTS:
The National Party says fewer patients are being assessed by a specialist for elective surgery, but the Government says more operations are being done than ever before.
National's health spokesman Tony Ryall, has released figures showing the number of first specialist assessments in the year to June 30, 2007, had dropped to 255,000 - down from 281,000 six years earlier.
"Despite spending an extra $5 billion a year on health, the raw number of sick and injured New Zealanders getting to see a specialist is down by 9 per cent under Labour.
"It's now harder than ever for a sick person to get into the system to qualify for surgery."
But Health Minister Pete Hodgson produced his own figures showing a big leap in the number of people getting surgery in the past year. Those figures showed 112,500 elective operations were performed in the year to June 30, up from 105,700 the year before.
Mr Hodgson said the figures were the highest since reliable reporting began.
He also attacked Mr Ryall's reluctance on TVNZ's Agenda programme yesterday to say how much National would spend on health.
Mr Ryall refused to commit National to the level of funding increases the health sector has experienced under Labour in recent years, but said spending would not be cut.
He attacked the level of bureaucracy in the health system on the programme, but refused to say exactly which jobs would go under a National government.
- NZPA
