The Ministry of Health's warning health professionals not to draw too many conclusions from new patient data.

More data from the Ministry's National Patient Flow project is now available, broken down by each District Health Board.

The statistics, for the three months ending September last year reveal how many patients were referred to specialist services, the outcome of referrals, and the time it takes patients to access care.

During the three months, there were 158,000 specialist referrals and 87 per cent were accepted, five per cent were declined as they did not meet the threshold.

The Ministry will be using the data to analyse what changes may need to be made in relation to where demand lies in the health system.

The Ministry clinical leader on prioritisation, Dr Chris Mc Ewan, said it may be easier for some healthcare facilities to process patients who've been declined care first.

He said each DHB has a different patient referral system and often a very different data input system, and it will take time for the data to build up and provide a clear picture.

But the New Zealand Medical Association said time alone won't give a complete broad picture.

Chairman Dr Stephen Child said it's wonderful the ministry's trying to evaluate the number of people who are declined treatment.

But he said it doesn't include everyone.

"If you go to your GP with a problem and your GP knows that you will not qualify for a special assessment, they will not refer you for a special assessment, and you won't even be presented in this data."

Dr Child said if the data's eventually going to be used to compare DHBs, it needs to take into account how the DHBs are different.

"That's a natural consequence of having district health boards in which each board can set their health priorities and budgets. That may be not the best way to handle a health care system for all New Zealanders when we're talking about equity."

Meanwhile the Health Fund Association of New Zealand's asking for a more thorough look into the demand for elective surgery.

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Chief Executive Roger Styles said we need a measure of total demand across the country.

"And that would include everyone who the GP thinks may need elective surgery and at each stage, so the ones the GP thinks needs the ones who have seen a specialist who may not have been booked for surgery."

The Health Fund Association of New Zealand says we shouldn't be denying ANYONE elective surgery.

Mr Styles said if someone needs surgery, they should get it.

"The system isn't keeping pace with demand. As we've seen every year, the demand for surgery increases. We have an aging population and an increasing population, and demand for health services is increasing."