High-profile women’s health and disability advocate Jess Quinn has added her voice to calls for reform of amputee services in New Zealand, after the Herald revealed amputees were languishing in pain for weeks amid appointment delays and a lack of choice in prosthetic providers.
All amputees are referred to the crown entity Peke Waihanga or the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service (NZALS) which is funded by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).
There are concerns the Government’s monopoly means patients are locked out of seeking alternative care with only a tiny fraction of patients getting ACC approval to see specialists independent of the national provider.
Amputees spoken to by the Herald raised concerns about lengthy delays for appointments and being in pain for weeks or months while trying to use ill-fitting artificial limbs.
Jess Quinn, a mother, model and co-founder of women’s health initiative, The Cyclist, lost her leg to cancer as a 9-year-old.
She said the current situation is unacceptable.
“I think some things need to change and this is one of them. It is just so incorrect that there’s only one place you can go for care,” she said.
Quinn, who competed on the television show Dancing With The Stars in 2018, has more than a quarter of a million followers on Instagram.
She said she struggled for five years with unworkable prosthetics.
“I remember walking down the aisle at my wedding in pain - this is how long this has been going on for me.”
She eventually sought the input of a specialist independent of NZALS.
Within two weeks of seeking alternative care, she said a pressure sore on her leg vanished and she was no longer in constant pain.
“The difference for me was being able to walk and do things with my daughter versus not for five years,” she said.
She likened the situation to going to a doctor, dentist or physiotherapist and then not having a choice of going elsewhere.
Quinn didn’t want to blame staff at the NZALS who she said had provided “incredible support”, but she felt there should be competition and freedom of choice for patients.
“I hope I haven’t offended anybody but sometimes we need to have hard conversations for change to happen,” she said.
The NZALS has received 19 formal complaints from amputees about its service delivery since January last year.
NZALS CEO Sean Gray acknowledged some issues but said that overall patient satisfaction with the national service was “incredibly high”.
The ACC Minister Scott Simpson and Disability Issues Minister Lousie Upston have been reluctant to wade into the issues raised by the Herald.
Both refused to be interviewed when contacted by the Herald.
In a statement, Simpson referred to issues raised by the Herald as an “operational matter” for ACC.
Upston said “all ministers” with an interest in the NZALS “expect it to work constructively” with clients and ACC to get the right outcomes.
“It’s really important New Zealanders using this important service receive the support and help they need, in a timely and professional way,” she said.
The Act Party has called on the Government to sell the NZALS, saying this would help provide choice and quality services for amputees.
Act health spokesman Todd Stephenson said the Government’s monopoly on services isn’t working.
“No private provider could get away with such poor service. It’s heartbreaking and shows why more choice and competition are urgently needed,” he said.
Stephenson said the Government should still fund artificial limbs, but having more private providers being able to access funding would improve innovation in the sector.
“Private providers would be forced to respond to patients’ needs and concerns, because if they didn’t, people would simply go elsewhere. But with a government monopoly, amputees are stuck with no other option,” he said.
Private prosthetist Lizzie Carey said the best scenario would be a mix of both government and private providers.
“In Australia all new amputees go to the government system for the first year and then after that they can move to a private centre,” she told the Herald.
The NZALS currently supports 4734 amputees, including an increasing number of patients every year who need amputations because of diabetes.
However, in recent years it’s also become heavily involved in providing orthotic services – a speciality which focuses on the design and fitting of braces or splints to support the foot or ankle.
The company’s latest annual report shows 17,117 patients received orthotic care from the NZALS in the year to June last year.
NZALS operation costs were just over $37m in the same period – money principally derived from its contracts with ACC, the report said.
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year at the NZ Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’s video team in July 2024.