ACT party leader David Seymour backed that up when he told Mike Hosking this morning that he's had surgeons, in his office, telling him that they were being told to take ethnicity into account when deciding who should get an operation first, and that they were uncomfortable about it. David Seymour said, well we need evidence that this is in fact a public health policy. And now the evidence is here.
Te Whatu Ora have come out and said yes, absolutely, this is what we're doing. Ethnicity will be taken into account, given that Maori Pacific Island patients have historically had unequal access to health care, so this is Te Whatu Ora’s way of fixing that.
Health officials stress that ethnicity is just one of five factors considered and deciding when a person gets surgery. David Seymour made the point that if the other equity adjusting factors are applied properly, then Maori and Pacifica, who need surgery, will get it.
There's got to be equality of opportunity, but equality of outcome is another factor entirely. These other factors should come into play. If you are economically deprived, if you are living in a remote geographical location, all that sort of thing, that should help to level the playing field.
I can understand why some doctors are really uncomfortable about this. Surely it should be based on need and need alone. As far back as Hippocrates, surely, that was how doctors decided who they would treat.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB
Health officials stress that ethnicity is just one of five factors considered and deciding when a person gets surgery. David Seymour made the point that if the other equity adjusting factors are applied properly, then Maori and Pacifica, who need surgery, will get it.
There's got to be equality of opportunity, but equality of outcome is another factor entirely. These other factors should come into play. If you are economically deprived, if you are living in a remote geographical location, all that sort of thing, that should help to level the playing field.
I can understand why some doctors are really uncomfortable about this. Surely it should be based on need and need alone. As far back as Hippocrates, surely, that was how doctors decided who they would treat.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB
5 comments:
When the separate health system gets set up and in full swing, these issues should go away. (not)
However, doctors and surgeons will be instructed to spend 75% of their time at Maori only clinics and to prioritise maori irrespective of non Maori patients needs.
Pacific people will of course continue to use non Maori clinics, simply because they are non Maori.
Overall, disgusting, racist, devisive and unnecessary.
We are told that the ‘legal’ basis of this apartheid new rule is the Treaty of Waitangi, and therefore we have no right to challenge it.
But see what is being done here - suddenly Pasifika people are being included, deceptively using a “legal” framework that has no right to be used at all for Pasifika people.
I believe this is what James Lindsay (If you can, listen to JL’s New Discourses audio; “Stealing the Motte: Critical Social Justice and the Principle of Charity”) refers to as the “Motte-and-Bailey of Woke Marxist manipulation;
In castles of yore, the bailey was the outer, less well guarded area. When challenged, the castle dwellers retreated from the more open bailey to the tightly protected castle centre, or motte.
The Critical Theorists in their Castle hang out in the bailey with their radical and dangerous introduction of apartheid with zero legal or moral authority. The bailey is THEIR desired position. It is from within the bailey that they strengthen their forces for the destruction of democracy. The bailey position is activist in orientation, very hard to defend, and clearly radical. It is from within the bailey that they have effectively brought Pasifika under the banner of Treaty rights.
When we do try and challenge the Woke castle, its troops retreat rapidly to the Motte. This is their high ground; their”honorable” defensible position that leaves challengers looking weak and uncharitable (racist, white supremacist etc) when they challenge those within.
The woke marxists manipulate our language to demand we use our desire for charity to their benefit, but they offer no charity in return.
So here, the Motte defense is their appeal to principles of “equity” and recognition of the poor health endemic in Maori and Pasifika groups- who would argue against that? While the Bailey - the true desired land they are fighting for, is the woke marxist Critical Race Theory plan to take any and all “power “ in New Zealand under their own control through manipulation of the Treaty, outright deception and threat, things which all of us know, deeply, are wrong.
There is NO treaty “principle” that includes Pasifika. Logic dictates they can ONLY have been included in this health diktat because of “need”. As of right now, even while the treaty trickery is being wound back, we must insist that the inclusion of Pasifika can only be read as the inclusion of “ on the basis of need” as the primary criterion to be used in deciding treatment priority in health.
Anything done otherwise is an abuse of us all and must be exposed and answered to at the highest level.
Surely Treaty Settlements should be paying for any inequity? Allowing Maori private treatment if they feel entitled to privilege.
Keep up with the play Kerry, the treaty and democracy were tweaked while we were sleeping and now we have apartheid alive and well in NZ.
Its not just surgery but other areas as well.
Last week my grandson got another attack of a very sore and inflamed throat and high temperature.
My son- in- law being English is unaware of the high incidence of rheumatic fever in N Z so when I urged him to have it checked out he dismissed it as excessive fussing. Bearing in mind that there is a family history of RF I suggested to my son to consult healthline. Their advice to my son was just home nursing and remedies! I rang them separately and challenged them on this advice and further stated I had seen on TV that pharmacies gave free tests for strep . throat. The reply was that they didn't watch TV and if I had seen the small print on the screen ,I would see that it probably only applied to Maori and Pacific patients.
There are two issues here one is that because of the draconian measures over Covid vaccines, some doctors lost their jobs and the others have enormous waiting lists. The A and E clinics are overloaded and you have to be fairly convinced you are dealing with a serious condition to expose your sick child to hours of waiting at A nad E.
RF is not restricted to just Maori or to even just
the low SES .I thought there was a determined effort to reduce the incidence overall.
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