January 27, 2022
Māori vax data still slow to flow
The head of Kirikiriroa’s Te Kōhao Health says frontline Māori organisations urgently need the data on the vaccination status of Māori in their regions.
The Health Ministry has released some data after challenges by the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, but providers are now trying to get booster shots into people and to reach whānau with unvaccinated tamariki.
Lady Tureiti Moxon says the Ministry is still hard to deal with despite findings against it from the Waitangi Tribunal and the High Court have.
‘You’ve got to keep going back and saying, ‘can I have an update please so we know where are whānau are? So we are able to encourage them. Not by knocking on every single door in whole the country but by letting them know that we’re in the area and giving them the option’.
Lady Moxon says providers are finding a lot of very Māori who want to get vaccinated but don’t have a way to get to vaccination centres.