NZ's healthcare system on par with the UK's

New Zealand's healthcare system is ranked 18th out of 24 OECD countries. Photo / File

New Zealand's healthcare system is ranked 18th place out of 24 countries - lagging behind a number of countries including Japan, Germany and even Australia.

UK healthcare recruiter ID Medical has ranked 24 OECD countries on their healthcare systems.

The ranking was based on the amount of GDP spent on healthcare, the number of doctors and nurses, how many hospital beds they have and the average life expectancy.

New Zealand was ranked 18th with a score of 60/100 and spending 9 per cent of its GDP on healthcare. It has 12,821 hospital beds and 62,843 doctors and nurses and the average life expectancy is 81.45.

It shared its 18th placed ranking with the UK which, despite having the 13th highest spending on healthcare, was brought down by being placed 22nd for the number of doctors and beds per capita.

Japan has the best healthcare system, gaining a score of 72/100. Its government spends 10.7 per cent on healthcare and it has more doctors and nurses than it does hospital beds. It has the longest life expectancy at 85.77.

Japan was followed closely by Germany and Switzerland in joint second place, Austria 4th and France 5th.

Latvia placed 8th despite having the shortest life expectancy at 74.64. Australia was placed 13th and Canada 14th.

HealthRanking

Out of the 24 countries that made the table, Italy spent the most on healthcare at 18.9 per cent of GDP while Latvia and Lithuania spent the least at 6.3 per cent.

ID Medical analysed data from 32 OECD countries and the top 24 were featured in the graph. The US was not included in the final analysis because it does not have a public or universal healthcare system.