Orthopaedic patients waiting nearly three weeks for surgery due to ACC approval delays

Orthopaedic patients are experiencing significant delays, with wait times for surgery stretching to almost three weeks. These extended waits are attributed to holdups in obtaining approval from the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). The ACC has acknowledged that a recent surge in demand impacted their decision-making speed. However, they state that the timeliness of these approvals is now showing improvement.

These delays directly impact patient recovery and quality of life, highlighting a bottleneck in the healthcare system's ability to provide timely surgical interventions.