Dunedin Hospital's outpatient physiotherapy service is under pressure, with routine non-urgent patients waiting nine weeks for treatment.
Southern District Health Board diagnostic and support services general manager (Otago) Sonja Dillon said the increase in the number of patients attending was not related to changes in ACC funding.
Referrals for the three months to the end of October were up 26% on the previous year, but there had not been a significant increase in ACC cases.
There had been a large increase in the number of referrals from hospital specialists, which was up 78%, for the same period.
Ms Dillon said further analysis of the figures would be required, but an increase in elective surgery could be contributing to the rise.
The hospital aims to see routine patients - those with longstanding conditions which are not impacting significantly on their ability to work or carry out normal daily living tasks - within six weeks of referral.
The waiting time is now 63 days, and at the end of last month 138 patients were waiting.
Acute patients, referred after surgery or trauma, have a one-week wait, while patients with sub-acute conditions - when someone has what is termed a "gradual onset condition" that has arisen recently - wait two weeks to be seen.
