February 28, 2024
GP network keen to improve Māori delivery
While the Government is scrapping dedicated provision of Māori health services, one of the country’s largest general practice collectives says it needs to step up its performance.
Mihi Blair, the kaiwhakahaere hauora Māori for Procare, says the organisation remains committed to te tiriti and reducing Maori health inequity.
One in 10 of their 850,000 clients spread across 170 practices in Auckland and Northland are Maori.
She says as an evidence-based organisation it took on board a 2021 review which revealed the extent of the gap.
“And it just made us have a big wake-up call, to just say we need to change. We serve a high population of tangata whenua in tamaki Makaurau – and the health statistics have completely and drastically gone down for Maori, in particular, after Covid,” Ms Blair says
While Procare is trying to recruit more Maori staff, its non-Maori staff have generally been willing to learn how to be more culturally understanding of whanau needs.