November 29, 2016
Indigenous doctors looking for solutions
The head of Maori public health organisation Hapai Te Hauora says this week’s Pacific Indigenous Doctors conference is a great opportunity to find out ways to improve health delivery.
More than 250 doctors and health professionals are at the conference at in Auckland Univesity.
Lance Norman says indigenous groups share many of the same issues.
"When you look at our Maori whanau, we are over-represented in health in relation to mental health, drug and alcohol, tobacco, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, suicide and cancer. Those issues are very common across all indigenous people so by working together to come up with solutions for whanau in both a medical and non-medical environment, that is a good goal for all our peoples internationally," he says.
Mr Norman says many of the issues with Maori and indigenous health care comes down to the accessibility of health systems to poor and minority communities.
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