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Dr Rawiri Jansen, a Papakura GP and clinical director of the National Hauora Coalition, has been appointed to the COVID-19 Surveillance and Testing Strategy Group.
The coalition has been critical in recent days about the group and its co-chairs, Sir Brian Roche and Heather Simpson, because of the role they played in the Health and Disability Services Review in rejecting the notion of a national Māori health authority.
Health Minister Chris Hipkins says over the next four weeks the group will provide additional advice to the Government and oversee its surveillance and testing plans.
It will focus on:
- ensuring cases are rapidly identified,
- identifying and minimising any undetected community spread,
- monitoring people at higher risk of exposure, and
- ensuring Māori and Pasifika people gain effective and equitable access to testing.
The other members of the group are Dr Api Talemaitoga, the chair of the New Zealand College of GPs’ Pacific chapter, and Professor Philip Hill, the director of the Centre for International Health at the University of Otago.
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