Elective, or non-urgent, surgery had failed to keep pace with population growth and the Ministry of Health would be focusing on improving access to elective surgery, Mr Ryall said in a statement.
The Government's election policy was to increase elective surgery 61% by 2026.
To reach this target, the Otago District Health Board would have to increase its elective surgery "discharges" by 132 a year, a ministry report on current and future capacity requirements shows.
Elective surgery discharges would have to increase from 5192 in 2007-08 to 7642 in 2026.
Board group manager Colleen Coop said more staff would be needed acrossin all surgical specialties to do more surgery.
While more staff could be employed, the lead in time for professional staff could be "extensive", she said.
Anaesthetist shortages and the norovirus outbreak meant the board had not been meeting its present elective surgery targets, but this was expected to improve this year.
Improvements in specialist staffing meant operating theatres were now running at near to full capacity, she said.
The ministry report said Otago would not need more elective theatres to achieve the proposed increases.
National pledged to spend $180 million during the next five years building new operating theatres.
A proposal to build a dedicated "elective surgery super centre" was put to Mr Ryall last week from the three Auckland district health boards.
Mr Ryall said the Government's promised 20 new elective surgery operating theatres and "800 extra trained staff" were essential to improve access to elective surgery. However, many health services, nationally and internationally, are struggling with health professional shortages and Mr Ryall's press statement did not address where the extra staff might come from.
