A specialist who has provided “life-changing” treatment to dozens of amputees is considering shutting her business and moving to Australia, saying she’s been backed into a corner with funding delays and “needs to make a living”.
Prosthetist Lizzie Carey, who’s based in Auckland, said it’s become too hard to run a sustainable business because patients who want to see her face delays of six months or more while the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) decides whether it’ll fund their appointments or not.
“I need to make a living, and so I may need to move to Australia in the coming months or maybe even the UK,” Carey told the Herald.
She said she was “devastated” she’d ended up in such a predicament as she’d hoped to continue helping amputees here.
Waikato mother of two Naomi Carter, whose left leg was amputated below the knee, said it would be a huge blow if Carey left for a job overseas.
“The idea of losing Lizzie is honestly difficult to comprehend. Just thinking about it creates a real sense of anxiety,” she said.
Carter said prior to meeting Carey, she was “hiding from the world” in pain and relying on crutches – rather than her prosthetic – to get around.
Since working with Carey on new artificial leg fittings, Carter has returned to the gym, is running, and has taken up competitive para rowing, in which she recently won her first medal at the North Island Rowing Championships.
“To say that working with Lizzie has been life-changing really would be an understatement,” she said.
Currently, all amputees are referred to the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service (NZALS) – an ACC-funded Government entity.
Last year, amputees, including Carter, spoke to the Herald about languishing in pain for weeks amid appointment delays with NZALS.
The six amputees the Herald spoke to as part of its investigation wanted to choose who provided their care, for example, having the ability to decide which physiotherapist or doctor they’d see.
The chief executive of NZALS, Sean Grey, told the Herald amputees are free to see who they like.
“There are no barriers preventing amputees from accessing other providers if they choose not to use publicly funded NZALS services,” he told the Herald.
ACC’s acting chief executive of sector commissioning and performance, Thomas Ronan, agreed, saying while NZALS was the agency’s “preferred” provider, patients can still “freely choose” to see whoever they like.
He said the time it took to approve funding for alternative care depended on the complexity of each request and the information provided to ACC.
Despite assurances patients have choice, official information obtained by the Herald shows few patients have been successful in getting funded approval to see experts other than those employed by NZALS.
In an almost five-year period to August last year, only 16 amputees were funded by ACC to see alternative providers. Five of the 16 received only partial funding.
Carter says she’s been able to get funding from ACC for appointments with Carey, but only after an “exceptionally long and difficult” negotiation.
She believed most amputees found dealing with ACC intimidating, so they settled for the “substandard” status quo.
Grey said current wait times for NZALS appointments were not significant, with those seeking urgent care seen within two days, and general requests for appointments taking five working days.
He said he was open to talking with Carey about becoming a subcontractor and while contact has been initiated, “we have not yet been able to meet”.
Social Development Minister Louise Upston, who is the minister responsible for the NZALS, told the Herald she raised concerns about poor service experience with Grey last year after the Herald’s investigation.
A spokeswoman for her office said she’d expect officials to follow up if issues regarding service quality persisted.
The NZALS reported a net loss of $700,000 for the year to June 2025. The bulk of its $40.45 million in revenue was from its contracts with ACC, according to its 2025 annual report.
In recent years, the NZALS has also become the dominant player in orthotics, with government contracts to provide services such as making shoe inserts to improve ankle alignment and relieve knee and back pain.
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.