June 20, 2023
Māori deserve to live longer; Minister Kelvin Davis
Māori Government Ministers are defending an algorithm designed by Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ, to address inequities within the health system.
The “Equity Adjustor Score”, is an algorithm that ranks patients according to clinical priority needs, time spent on the waitlist, geographic location (isolated and rural areas), deprivation level and ethnicity.
In the ethnicity category, Māori and Pacific are top of the list, while all other non-Māori are lower-ranked.
Minister for Corrects and MP for Te Tai Tokerau Kelvin Davis says that it’s a essential that we focus on the issue and that is that Māori have the right to live as long as anyone else in New Zealand and not die on average seven years earlier.
National Party Kaikōrero on Hauora Dr Shane Reti said, that while he understands there has been historical inequity disadvantaging Māori and Pasifika, the idea that any government would deliberately rank ethnicities for priority for surgery is offensive, wrong and should halt immediately.
In 2019 the Waitangi Tribunal found that the Crown had breached the Treaty of Waitangi by failing to actively address Māori health inequities and failing to uphold its Treaty obligations in the primary health care sector.