June 03, 2021
DHB chair sees more room for Maori in reforms
The chair of Northland District Health Board believes the health reforms will allow Māori to be more closely integrated with the whole health system, rather than being siloed into a Māori Health Authority.
Harry Burkardt from Ngāti Kuri says the current DHB structure has reached its use-by date, and change is necessary.
He says what’s being proposed with Health New Zealand and the Māori Health Authority is not centralisation but a national structure which will need to be integrated at a hospital and community level.
"An ability for the structure to have a te tiriti lens which is the Māori Health Authority and the iwi partnership boards required to operate at a locality and then having a lend into Health New Zealand so that Health New Zealand delivers the aspirations of the health reforms, there are more opportunities in this future structure that have been given to us in the past," Mr Burkhardt says.
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