As noted in the “lawyer’s letter” entitled Proposed article for the New Zealand Medical Journal (the letter1 and article2 were published in the 16 September 2005 issue of the NZMJ), a graph was removed from this article pre-publication due to miscalculation of my 2001 data.

I was not permitted to review the text subsequently. It is therefore disappointing to note that the published text still refers to these erroneous figures by stating that percentages of services willing to offer each form of support had increased from 2001 to 2004. In fact, percentages for six forms of support had decreased, two were minimally increased, and one (symptom control) significantly increased.

Furthermore, I am puzzled that the support for decision-making, advice, family/carer support, and bereavement were perceived to have increased from 2001, when they were not surveyed in the 2001 questionnaire.