Note that the elective services system has a strong circularity
to it—the points required by service users are
developed with reference to the ability of each DHB to
treat service users within the time frames set by the government
of the day. Currently, the government is moving to
have 4-month targets for assessments and treatments.
As noted above, the system is designed to have a key
focus on assessing need, originally defined as ‘ability to
benefit’ (from surgery). The system relied, then, on clinicians
accepting the need for patients to be prioritised, and
devising criteria that could then be used to assess patients.
The system was, in practice, extremely difficult to develop
and then to implement across New Zealand’s DHBs, with a
wide range of concerns expressed about the ethics of prioritising
patients, the criteria to be used, and the extent to
which the chosen criteria would indeed allow the system to
focus treatments on those with the most to gain [20].
Furthermore, the process became difficult to implement
without additional funding. Thus, at times, some New
Zealanders on waiting lists were told they were being
dropped from the lists, with the process becoming highly
politicised [20].
In spite of difficulties over many years, the electives
priority setting system remains in place today. From the
government’s perspective, the system has successfully
removed the focus of the public on waiting lists and times,
and provides an important means by which the government
holds DHBs to account for a key aspect of performance.
The government is currently paying attention to further
reducing the waiting times for those accepted into the
system. From an economics perspective, however, the
system continues to be criticised. It has eliminated poorly
managed waiting lists but no information is available on
those returned back to their GPs for care, opening the
government up to criticism that it is simply hiding ‘waiting
lists’ to achieve its waiting times goals, and reducing the
potential for more thoughtful consideration of whether it is
better value for money to treat those accepted for surgery
more quickly, or offer those currently not being treated
access to surgery. From an equity perspective, the system
also does not provide the national consistency that was
originally desired—the tools used to score patients differ
around the country, actual scoring processes differ, and the
points needed to receive treatment also differ according to
where a patient lives, and may change over time [20]. In
addition, overall, there is no clear assessment of whether
the criteria being used do focus on aspects of ability to
benefit and whether the electives system leads to overall
high levels of value for money by successfully selecting
those patients with the most to gain from treatment.