At 35-years-old, Sharon Cooper is at an age where she would like to buy her first home, and contemplate starting a family.

There is only one thing standing in her way. In fact, standing is the issue.

Cooper is one of 174,000 New Zealanders who have been left off waiting lists for elective surgery. In Cooper's case, it has cost her the option of acquiring a mortgage, starting a family, and she believes soon it will cost her another job.

John Kirk-Anderson Janet Frame, who is in intense pain awaiting a shoulder replacement. She has been told her surgery won't happen until at least after August, despite the fact she cannot even change her clothes or sleep now.

After 12 years working on a dairy farm, Cooper was forced to quit when she twisted her knee badly on the job. While ACC covered it as a work-related injury, Cooper was forced to leave her job, and her farm worker lodging, while she recuperated.

"Not only was it my job but it was my home as well, which was incredibly upsetting," she said.

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Desperate to move on with her life, Cooper got a new job in town. But it was not long before her knee

started playing up again.

After "months and months" of GP visits and being referred from specialist to specialist, an MRI scan found Cooper's knee was "completely worn out". The condition was genetic, so it was not covered by ACC.

"It meant I'm basically on my own.

"The specialist said 'This is what's wrong with you and it's not going to get any better. You need a partial knee replacement'."

It seemed straightforward enough, Cooper thought. She remained "really positive" for a quick surgery recovery and returning to work.

Instead, Burwood's orthopaedics unit declined her for an assessment, "due to the number of people waiting with a greater level of need".

That line would be reiterated to her three times in the coming months in separate rejection letters.

"I was devastated, I really was," Cooper said.

"I struggle [at work] but I manage because I have to."

She now has a pronounced limp, and is in constant pain. She and her partner were keen to buy their first home, but Cooper worried how long she would be able to continue working. Then there was the thought of starting a family.

"I'd like to consider it one day, but there's no way I could even think about it right now.

"I'm pretty much at a loss. It's like being in a hole you can't get out of. I know I'll get to the point where I can't work and I just think it's so unfair.

"As far as I'm concerned they're declining you for an assessment so you can't even get on the waiting list."

Research released by global research company TNS on Monday showed about 174,000 New Zealanders are in need of publicly-funded surgery, but have not been placed on a waiting list.

Patients are commonly being turned away as their pain is not considered to be severe enough, or GPs are "waiting to see" how their condition progresses.

The wait for a publicly-funded surgery had leapt by 80 days since 2013, to 304 days.

On Wednesday, Labour's health spokeswoman Annette King challenged Health Minister Jonathan Coleman during parliamentary question time on the statistics.

Coleman responded saying, "There is a difference between a telephone survey of what a person thinks they need and a trained doctor's medical assessment".

Janet Frame, 64, often sleeps in her clothes because she can't lift her shoulder to take them off. She sleeps on average two hours a night, and can no longer perform basic daily activities.

The Hornby woman has been waiting in "excruciating" pain for a shoulder replacement for four months, and has been told her surgery is unlikely to be performed before August. It is not the entry into retirement Frame had been expecting.

About two and a half years ago, Frame had an operation on her foot, which was "full of arthritis". It forced her to give up her job as a sales representative.

But as it healed, Frame felt something was not right. She returned to her doctor, but nothing out of the ordinary was found until months later.

"I kept telling them something wasn't right, I was in such terrible pain. I couldn't even stand up. I had four X-rays in three months and they couldn't pick it up."

A CT scan then found a broken screw in her foot, 12 months after the initial operation.

As her foot healed, Frame was given a scooter to get around on. It was this scooter she fell from late last year, severely injuring her shoulder.

Three cortizone injections and physiotherapy did little to help. And then she had another fall, on the same shoulder.

"I kept going back to the doctor saying my arm is terrible. I only sleep two hours a night."

Frame now relies on sleeping pills, and lives her days in constant pain. In January, Frame struggled to be accepted onto the waiting list for shoulder surgery, and was rejected once. In February, she was added to the clinic waiting list at Burwood Hospital to be assessed for shoulder replacement. They told her she would be seen within four months.

Anxious and pained, she enquired about the status of her surgery this week, and was told they "can't see anything for me".

"The lady said it probably won't be until August and even then we'll have to be reassess you."

It was suggested her doctor write another letter outlining the severity of the situation, Frame said, but they had already written several of them.

"I've just had enough. I can't do anything – I can't put my washing out, I can't do the garden or mow the lawns. Someone has to come in to help me with the shower because I can't dry myself. I find it hard to get dressed, and some days I sleep in my clothes because I can't get them off."

Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) chief executive David Meates said as of April 1, 3336 people were waiting for elective surgery.

Each year, the CDHB did between 450,000 to 480,000 outpatient appointments.

People tended to wait about four months. This wait time allowed people to be scheduled in and kept people going in to hospital and out smoothly.

This year they were set to do 20,474 elective discharges – 3500 of which were complex referrals from other DHBs.

That number was likely to be even larger, as some minor procedures were not counted as surgeries at the CDHB, but they were at other hospitals.

Meates said they were constricted by a number of things, including funding. If the hospital performed more elective surgeries, that money would need to be taken from other services.

"Could more people benefit from operations? Certainly yes. It does come to funding... but no matter how much you funded it there would always be limited capacity of surgeons or health professionals.

"That does mean at times those who will benefit have to wait, because there are others with a greater level of urgency. And that's always hard for people to understand."