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Health New Zealand says reducing wait times to see specialists is a key focus, after a new report showing the number of patients overdue for an appointment quadrupled between 2020 and 2024.
The Quality and Safety review, released last week, found a deterioration in access at GP and hospital level over the past decade.
This included a jump in deaths of patients who left emergency departments without seeing a doctor and an increasing number of people waiting more than four months for a first specialist appointment.
Health New Zealand chief clinical officer Richard Sullivan told Nine to Noon getting patients to specialists sooner was key.
"Two areas we have, what I would say is a laser focus on and understand these in depth now, is people referred to a specialist. That is a really key one," said Dr Sullivan.
"What we don't know is how high their risk is - how unwell they are. So, they need to be seen, so that we can make sure that those who have the greatest health need get seen as fast as possible. Obviously we want everyone to be seen in a timely fashion, four months being the target. But realistically we know we sit at 58 to 60 percent at the moment against that target."
It would take several years to get to that target, he said.
If it had been determined people need surgery the next step was to ensure they have access to that, Dr Sullivan said.
Health NZ had recently released a number of proposals to tackle surgery wait times, including improving performance within the health sector and looking at opportunities to work collaboratively with the private sector.
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