NZ healthcare system among world's best - study

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The New Zealand healthcare system is one of the most effective in the world, according to a recent study.

Research conducted by US-based organisation The Commonwealth Fund found the effectiveness of healthcare in New Zealand ranked second out of 11 OECD countries surveyed.

The report, 'Mirror Mirror on the Wall', was published earlier this week and aimed to compare health system to 10 of the top OECD countries--New Zealand, Australia, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada and the UK.

The experiences and perceptions of patients and medical practitioners from each of the countries was surveyed in ten different categories looking at quality of care, access, efficiency, equity and how healthy the population is.

New Zealand was also ranked second in health coordination, which measures how well information is passed between medical specialists, and follow-ups with patients.

But, New Zealanders ranked as one of the least healthy populations, and scored poorly on health safety, with sicker adults reporting high rates of medical errors.

The report found that equity of healthcare in New Zealand was the second worst, only above the US, and low-income earners believed they did not have the same access to good healthcare as higher earners.

UK healthcare was ranked the best in the world in 8 out of 10 categories, and the US ranked the worst out of the 11 countries.