Lack of data on unmet health needs means we won't know if health reforms are working

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-02-03 00:01

New Zealand

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The number of people with unmet needs for non-urgent hospital treatment (“elective” care) is often used internationally as a measure of health system functioning. However, a group of Kiwi experts say that we aren’t doing enough to measure it in New Zealand, despite having an annual measure for unmet need in primary health care in place. Authors of the New Zealand Medical Journal editorial say this data is vital to understanding whether current reforms and future evolutions of the New Zealand health system achieve desired outcomes.

News release

From: Pasifika Medical Association Group

The unmet need for primary (GP) health care is measured each year as part of the New Zealand Health Survey. By contrast, Unmet Secondary Elective Healthcare Need (USEHN)—non-urgent hospital treatment - has never been appropriately measured by the New Zealand Government or our Ministry of Health. Many countries have accepted that routine surveys of USHEN are vital measures of how well their healthcare systems are functioning and are necessary for international benchmarking. We in Aotearoa New Zealand have a new healthcare system, and its new Ministry of Health has yet again made deliberate efforts to frustrate the measurement of USEHN by obfuscation and a petty attempt at avoidance of media attention to this issue. It is to be hoped that this type of approach does not augur badly for the future transparency and honey needed to improve our ailing health care system.

Journal/
conference: New Zealand Medical Journal

Organisation/s: Massey University, University of Otago, Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust Christchurch

Funder: N/A

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