Waiting lists. Listless feeling.

New Zealand is attempting to replace waiting lists with a booking system for elective surgery such as hip replacements, cataract removal and heart bypass operations, and medical procedures. The propose system would only accept for treatment those patients assessed as likely to gain the greatest benefit. Purchasers were originally instructed to implement the system by this month. This has now been postponed until July 1999. The proposals are being opposed by clinicians on the basis that, in some cases, they would rule out 30 per cent of patients from treatment.