New Zealand scored poorly on a World Health Organisation health system efficiency table because the rating process was inappropriate, health officials say.
WHO ranked New Zealand 80th out of 191 countries in its table, published last week and based on data from 1993 to 1997.
That puts us just below South Americannations Surinam and Brazil, and Trinidad and Tobago.
But the ministry said the result was skewed by WHO's insistence on including a country's level of education.
The deputy director-general of social policy, Gillian Durham, said that under WHO's methodology, a very high education ranking was taken to indicate the potential to achieve exceptional health outcomes.
