June 20, 2023
Waiting list plan fit for purpose
Cabinet Minister Kelvin Davis has hit back against National Health spokesperson Shane Reti’s claim Whatu Ora’s decision to include ethnicity in its waiting list criteria is offensive.
Dr Reti says while there has been historical inequity that has disadvantaged Māori and Pasifika people, the idea that any government would deliberately rank ethnicities for priority for surgery is wrong and should be stopped.
Mr Davis says for 183 years non-Maori have been prioritized on wait lists.
“What this doesn’t mean is that the pakeha having a heart attack gets pushed down the list while the Maori with an ingrown toenail or tonsilitis gets pushed above them. What doctors will do is make their professional judgment on who has the most chronic need and treat that person first but I guess if you’ve got two people with ingrown toenails, one’s a Maori and one’s a pakeha, everything else taken into account the Maori might get their ingrown toenail fixed first,” he says.
Mr Davis says Dr Reti is defending a system that is wrong.