Information on hospital activity is available on a quarterly basis on a public website, Hospital Surgical Activity website The information consists of:

• Total discharge volumes and caseweights by surgical service.
• Total discharge volumes split into acute and elective. (Data is presented by both DHB of domicile and DHB of service.)
• Standardised discharge ratios (SDRs) for 14 elective procedures presented by DHB of domicile.

The presentation of discharge volumes and caseweights by DHB of domicile provides a picture of the number of patients treated who reside in that DHB region, irrespective of where they received their treatment.  This answers the question: "Over time is Otago DHB's population receiving more or less service?"

The SDRs compare individual DHBs with the national mean, taking DHB demographics into account.  Obviously intervention rate analysis does not indicate what the 'right' rate ought to be.  However Otago DHB compares favourably with the rest of the country.
The Government has also provided additional funding to increase the level of surgical provision for specific operations.  These include:

a A decision in 2004 to increase the numbers of elective primary major joint (hip and knee) replacement procedures performed in the public sector.  This represented an increase of 4500 procedures.
b A decision in 2005 to increase by 50% the number of cataract operations performed in the public sector.  This represented an increase of some 4000 procedures.