For endometriosis sufferer

ment, before the outbreak of Covid19. Wait times had increased since 2013 and were up to 304 days.

And clearing the ‘‘massive bulge’’ of delayed elective surgeries once restrictions were lifted would prove a challenge, said Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.

‘‘How we manage that could create some pressure points.’’

District health boards will focus on a patient’s clinical priority when choosing what elective surgeries will go ahead, a Ministry of Health spokesman said.

This would be balanced alongside infection control needs.

Bush expected endometriosis surgery delays to be felt well into next year.

But Collingwood’s quality of life is drastically affected now.

Capital & Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa DHB incident controller Joy Farley said it was too soon to go into detail about planning to meet elective surgery demand.

‘‘As alert levels change, we will consider the implications on our services and determine if or how we can then possibly increase the level of elective surgery we undertake.’’

Stuff asked a series of questions of the health board yesterday and is awaiting a response.

Members of Brookland’s family have declined to comment. It is understood his wife, Joan, worked for the Invercargill City Council, where about 10 staff have been diagnosed as having the virus.

One of those staff was the bride at the Bluff wedding, which has been identified as one of the country’s largest clusters – with more than 96 confirmed cases linked to the event.

Bloomfield previously said Brookland’s death was indirectly linked to the cluster.