This article was first published by Stuff.
Ngāti Kahungunu has hit out against the scrapping of free doctor visits for Māori and Pacific youth in Hawke’s Bay, labelling the actions of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and the Minister of Health Dr Shane Reti as an “outrage”.
The free service had been in place in various forms in Hawke’s Bay since 2016. In mid-2023 it was extended to cover everyone aged 14-24.
But last month Health NZ announced that from September 1 the service would only be available to people if they were Māori and/or Pacific, held a Community Services Card, resided in one of the most deprived areas, or had certain diagnosed long-term conditions.
On Tuesday Reti stepped in and told Health NZ to drop the Māori and Pacific criteria from the list.
A spokesperson from Reti’s office told Stuff that the minister “strongly communicated” back to Health New Zealand that the criteria were “not consistent with government policy, and certainly not consistent with his Government Policy Statement on health”.
The following day Luxon backed Reti’s call and said health professionals were wrong to implement the policy.
“We have a very simple approach to healthcare which is based off need, not ethnicity or race. That was out of line, out of order,” he told RNZ.
“I needed to remind them of the statements that I’d made in the government policy statement that we will base our resource distribution, our decision making based on need first of all and then on targeting vulnerabilities after that,” Luxon said.
On Friday Ngāti Kahungunu chairman Bayden Barber said removing the criteria was an “outrage and an overreach from the central government”.
“Targeting services to Māori and Pasifika is not a racist agenda, it is simply acknowledging that there are communities that do not access the appropriate primary health services they need when they need them,” Barber said.
“It is no secret that Māori are over-represented negatively in all major health statistics in New Zealand. Māori are more likely to need health care and die eight years younger than non-Māori. Our Pasifika whānau are a little better at six years younger. How is it that this can still be happening in 2024?” he said.
In 2019, Barber was chair of the Health Hawke’s Bay PHO, which initiated the Ka Hikitia Strategy, which prioritised Māori health outcomes and associated funding allocations.
“Ka Hikitia means to ‘lift’, and it was a deliberate strategy to lift Māori health outcomes that continued to lag compared to the rest of the community. I mihi to the board, staff and participating general practices for their courage and also to consecutive boards and staff for continuing in this direction,” he said.
“It was clear to myself and others that the criteria set on ‘need’ alone was not targeted enough. It was not making a difference in the lives of whānau in our most vulnerable communities,” Barber said.
He said Hawke’s Bay was home to some of the country’s most wealthy, but also “home to some of our country’s most destitute”.
“We will not move the dial on improving Māori health outcomes until we address this issue head-on,” he said.
He said the iwi would continue to look for solutions “by working with our health and social sector partners and by building strong relationships with those who can support lifting whānau health and wellbeing outcomes”.
“As the Kahungunu saying goes, ‘Kaua e hoki i te waewae tūtuki, ā pā anō hei te upoko pakaru!’ In essence, never give up but keep moving forward,” Barber said.
- Stuff