The "explicit rationing'' of joint-replacement surgery in Otago is worsening, and patients should look to other ways of funding their surgery, a research paper published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal says.
Written by Dunedin Hospital orthopaedic surgeon Associate Prof David Gwynne-Jones and Dr Ella Iosua, a biostatistician in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, the paper analyses hip and knee patients from November 2013 to October 2014 in Otago (excluding Queenstown).