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Download AudioThe Māori Health Authority’s new chief medical officer says he’s not worried about the size of the budget he has to work with.
Rawiri McKree Jansen starts at Te Aka Whai Ora at the end of August.
He has spent the past decade as the clinical director for GP collective the National Hauora Coalition, and he’s also co-chaired the Māori pandemic response group, He Whakakaupapa Urutā.
Dr Jansen says the key to Te Aka Whai Ora’s mission is to improve the whole health system for Māori.
“I don’t want to be distracted only into the millions that Te Aka Whai Ora might have. I really want to make sure we are correctly influencing the bigger funding, the mainstream funding that’s over on the other side so those relationships with Te Whatu Ora will be I think key,” he says.
Dr Jansen says he’s had a lifetime of activism on Māori land, rights, Māori language, a nuclear-free independent Pacific and stopping the 1981 Springbok tour, as well as for Māori health, and he won’t hide behind the desk in his new role.
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