Cure Kids says hospital admissions for tamariki and rangatahi remain unacceptably high across five major health classes.
The charity’s 2023 State of Child Health Report, done in collaboration with the University of Otago’s child and youth epidemiology service, found child health and inequity is getting worse.
Māori and Pasifika tamariki and tamariki living in areas with the greatest socio-economic deprivation are disproportionately affected by respiratory conditions, rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, skin infections, dental disease, and mental health.
Cure Kids CEO Frances Soutter says 60,000 tamariki are admitted to hospitals each year with conditions that could be prevented with good public health programmes in the community, as is being done with some immunisation programmes.
“You know skin infections, it could be something as simple as making sure we have free treatment, just basic antiseptics and dressings, so kids don’t get to a point they have a sore that just doesn’t heal and they end up in hospital needing intravenous antibiotics,” she says.
Ms Soutter says valuable research is being done, such as work on tests and vaccines for rheumatic fever and heart disease, which needs continuing support from the Government.
