He details his experience, quantifies the disgraceful waiting list for public hospital elective surgery and asks why the public health system allows so many people to languish rather than receive much-needed help. Four weeks for me, but months or even years for many depending on our public health system. Without health insurance, however, people are dependent on an increasingly burdened and under-resourced public health system. Not for all those still on the waiting list, let alone those who have not even made it that far. He has researched and written on elective surgery waiting lists in New Zealand and particularly the lower South Island.

Source: New Zealand Herald January 17, 2021 21:22 UTC