April 21, 2021
Maori Health Authority needs to track value for money
The head of west Auckland’s Te Whānau o Waipareira says health reforms announced today are a once in a generation opportunity.
John Tamihere says kudos must go to Health Minister Andrew Little for the scope of the reform, which includes scrapping district health boards and public health organisations and setting up a Māori Health Authority.
He says money which should have got to services has instead gone to running an over-size Health Ministry and 20 DHB bureaucracies.
"By the time it trickles down to Māori, we walk into a GP clinic and have to pay. Somebody has spent every one of our dollars without our consent. That has to stop. What the Māori Health Authority has to do is monitor who is getting our money and is it working for us in a qualitative sense – and if not, why continue to pay people to just take our money and give us poor service," he says.
Mr Tamihere says it’s important Māori find consensus on the shape of the Māori Health Authority, rather than have iwi scrapping about their bit of it.
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