New Zealand's unmet adult health issues will be under the microscope as new research gets a funding boost.

The union for senior doctors and dentists in public hospitals is contributing $10,000 to the project.

The research will be led by Christchurch surgeon Phil Bagshaw, who also runs the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust.

He hopes to survey residents by the end of the year to collate how desperate the need is and how to meet it.

Phil Bagshaw admits some professionals believe ignoring adult problem will make them go away.

"Whether it be surgical, mental help ... if you don't do them they smoulder away in the background and then they come back with bigger problems and in the end they end up costing more money."

Bagshaw warns there may be Kiwis who are not receiving the support they need.

"There's been a lot of effort to bury this unmet need to make the health system look better than it really is. It's becoming less measured, and less and less known about and less and less talked about, but it's unquestionably there."