Its statement on Maori health and wellbeing is a case in point. It claims:
"Historical and ongoing colonisation means that Māori are prevented from accessing resources that promote good health and experience much higher exposure to health harms compared to non-Māori."
Brown has faced a barrage of criticism, mostly claiming that cultural competency is a necessary professional requirement and not the ideological project he is accused of opposing. But Brown's criticism of the Medical Council was not directed at its focus on cultural competency at all. It was directed at the Council's reliance on vague, ideological and politically charged concepts such as "ongoing colonisation."
A professional regulatory body undermines its own credibility when it makes sweeping assertions without clearly defining its terms or providing evidence. What exactly is ‘ongoing colonisation’? In what way are all Maori people prevented from accessing resources that promote good health? Which resources and who or what is preventing access?
The Council’s claim is also not credible. The Council does not attribute this inability to access resources to some Maori. It specifically attributes this to ‘Maori’, which can only mean it believes all Maori people are handicapped in this way. There are nearly one million Maori people in New Zealand. Where is the evidence that such a large proportion of the population is unable to function at such a level as to be able to access health resources that promote good?
If the claim cannot be substantiated, as I suspect it can’t, it has no place in the standards of a professional medical regulator. The Medical Council should be focused on promoting high-quality healthcare, not advancing ideological narratives through broad, undefined and dubious political statements.
The problem is not that the Medical Council believes this nonsense, it is the fact that they are making it a requirement that doctors believe it too.
It will be a requirement for doctors “to develop and maintain knowledge and insight into how colonial histories, institutional structures and everyday medical practices shape health outcomes for Māori.”
Any doctor when faced with a smart, articulate, educated Maori patient who takes their health seriously, which is not unusual I would think, could be forgiven for wondering why it is that the Maori before them is not like the Medical Councils’ mythical Maori; oppressed, unable to read health pamphlets and take responsibility for their own health. A doctor might even conclude themselves that colonisaton has brought benefits to Maori in terms of health outcomes; advanced medicines, vaccinations etc have brought life expectancy gains since colonisation for Maori that are greater than that of non Maori, but should they do that they will be out of step with the Medical Council and presumably exposed to its wrath.
Most professional bodies tell their members what they must do: The Medical Council tells doctors what they must think.
It also tells them what they must understand. Doctors are told that they must “understand the inherent indigenous rights that Māori hold, as tangata whenua, to health, self determination and equity”.
What these special rights that Maori people have it does not say. If the Medical Council believes that Maori people have rights to health that non Maori patients don’t have it should list them. How is a doctor to be sure they have satisfied the Medical Councils requirements of understanding, and one presumes providing their Maori patients these special rights, when they don’t know what they are?
As well as providing professional level care to each of their patients the Medical Council tells doctors they are “professionally responsible for taking meaningful action to advance health equity for Māori”.
So now doctors must not only provide and monitor professional care for each patient but also a specific ethnic group of patients so that they can somehow advance health equity for Maori. Doctors should be professionally required to provide equitable care to all patients no matter their ethnicity and a Medical Council that believes one ethnicity is more deserving than another should be closed down.
As if complying with vague ideological drivel from the Medical Council is not hard enough, the greatest challenge for doctors is to comply with the Medical Council’s requirement for them to not stereotype Maori people while stereotyping them.
Doctors are told to “avoid cultural stereotypes and assumptions” Yet the entire framework requires doctors to begin by viewing patients through the lens of their Maori ethnicity. Before the patient has spoken a word, the doctor is expected to understand them as a member of a group shaped by historical and ongoing colonisation, inequity, power imbalances, disadvantage, and institutional barriers. They are also to assume one presumes that the Maori patient before them has been unable to access resources that promote good health because of ongoing colonisation and therefore does not know how to live a healthy life.
Cultural competency is a legitimate professional requirement, and one would expect that when faced with a patient of an obvious cultural group a doctor would respect that. The Medical Council defines cultural competency as “the ability to understand, appreciate, and interact effectively with people form cultures or belief systems different from one’s own” Not scolding an orthodox Jew for not eating pork or requiring a fasting Muslim to take pills that must not be taken on an empty stomach are concrete examples, but what it is about Maori people that in the eyes of the Medical Council make them different to a non Maori doctor and what assumptions a doctor is supposed to make in regard to Maori people, other than they are oppressed by ongoing colonisation and have unnamed special rights, is not detailed. Do Maori people really want to be thought of as different to mainstream New Zealand patients in any case?
The Medical Council has pulled the draft consultation documents after 8500 submissions were received. This is an unusually high number for a professional standards consultation. The submitters who were opposed who included doctors themselves, were concerned that it was too ideological, not clinically grounded, risked stereotyping patients, too vague, and promoted unfairness between patients. The draft document was an ideological shocker, laced with racist undertones and patronising to the Maori people of New Zealand. The fact that the governing body approved it for release for consultation brings in to question the competency of the entire Council, not just the Chair and Deputy Chair. Simeon Brown was right on the money when he made new Ministerial appointees to the Council to replace them, but he needs to go further because it was not just the Chair and Deputy Chair who approved this shocker of a consultation document for release.
Robin Grieve, a tutor, orchardist and retired farmer, is Chairman of Pastural Farming Climate Research HERE.
26 comments:
This article should be sent to Dr Ken Clark....now NZMC Chairman!!
The whole debacle was a disgrace to our profession.
As to the wokester Drs complaining to Brown of the firing of the previous chairman and deputy...pffft!
All will be well dr Betty to the rescue
Brown sticking his snivelly nose in with his dog whistling right-wing ideology. Politicians need to stay out of medicine. Ridiculous.
The fastest way to fix this is to allow a new body to form with similar powers.
Additionally there should be no "union" style body that is the gate keeper of a profession, they will work for their members when they purport to represent the interests of the population.
Think of real estate institute or teachers simple take the registration power from them and let them establish whatever union they prefer. Remember these groups were originally lobbies for rent seeking but have turned into monopoly lobby groups running up and down an unholy alliance.
Robin: I fully agree with everything you have written above. The government has to cancel ALL this neo-Marxist, post-modern, critical theory, bullshit which is infecting our Republic and its institutions.
The magic 4% + or 520th certainly suits some agendas.
Robin - great article.
Here is my experience with the medical council.
I made an appointment with my doctor coming up 2 years back, late july. I was told my appt would be in 6 weeks, the 10th sept. I was not happy but decided to live with it. 6 weeks is a long time. When the 8th sept rolled around i phoned my doctor to confirm my appointment and time. They confirmed. Just 2 hours later, they called me and cancelled my appointment - not giving a reason. They made me 'start again' and scheduled me for late october - another 6 week wait.
It was here I lost my rag. I understand 'things' happen, I'm a business owner myself and consider myself 'agile' and able to adapt to situations. However, if they had told me, 'sorry, we cant do that day, we need to move you a couple of days out', I would understand. But to make me start again and wait 'another 6 weeks' and a total of over 3 months - is unacceptable. I phoned my doctors office repeatedly for an explanation and to try and move my appointment forward. They would not budge. The manager never ever called me back after I left 6 messages requesting to speak to her. I even went in - but to no avail. I then tried to change doctors, no doctor would take me - as I already have a doctor......apparently.
This is when I called the medical council. My dealings with them were just as bad. They initially refused to help. They told me 'thats how it goes'. I was shocked at their response. I spoke to my lawyer who told me that is unacceptable and they need to 'go into bat for me', that what they are there for. When I called back and mentioned I have legal advice, it was only then the medical council agreed that a over 3 month wait was unacceptable and wrote a letter on my behalf to my medical center. They refused to put in the part that I wanted put in that if I were maori that this would have never happened. I have witnessed with my own eyes when waiting for my doctor in previous appointments that maori get appointments the very next week, others have to wait. Although I dont understand each situation, I wanted that part put in to my letter. The medical council refused. They told me there is no race based policies in health, and then I told them that is incorrect as Ardern implemented race based policies and the 'rating system' as an example and the maori health system. Again, the medical council representative went quiet. They refused to put my request into my letter.
They then they sent my letter to the wrong medical center. Another day or two trying to sort these simple tasks out and eventually my letter hit my medical center. The doctors office called me and told me that there was a cancellation and I could see a doctor this week (like they were doing me a favour). I took that appointment and when in the doctors office I told her the story of my experience. I flatly asked her to her face - 'if i were maori and my name was rangi honi, would i have been treated like this'? She said 'no'.
Get rid of the medical council also. Useless waste of tax payer money. Racist like the rest of the far left govt agencies. Health (and everything) should be based on need, not race.
To anon at 8.44am: Ideologists should stay out of medical treatment of New Zealanders. Minister Brown has kept them out, which is why the wokesters are so vocal.
Not only does every Maori have full and equitable access to doctors and the health system, in fact more given the priority remaining from Ardern's He Puapua initiatives.
Plus the taxpayers are also paying some millions of dollars for some witch doctor type woo woo spiritual nonsense accessible only to the right type of Maori.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/9m-invested-in-fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder-hubs-for-gisborne-rotorua-and-hawkes-bay/FYFXVLB3ZBDLZHH5BO6J5TIXMU/
It is Simeon that is the ideologist. He has no medical qualifications or knowledge and is only interested in farming the gutters for votes from those who fear change and “others”. It looks to be paying off at least for some segments?
Anon 844, I’m sure you meant to say medical people should stay out of politics. Yes?
K (and anyone else listening) please introduce a link with a few words about how it relates to the article. I let it through this time because it is quite obvious that there is a connection but that is not always the case.
Here in Nelson, only Maori get a reminder call so they won't miss their appointments and cost the taxpayers extra money for time wasted. So much for "structural racism ".
mod... Thank you, yes I thought about that after posting the link alone.
"colonisation means that Māori are prevented from accessing resources" Not opening a door or picking up a phone because they are colonialist inventions is surely just Maori preventing themselves from availing of all the resources supplied by colonisation.
To (another) Anon: 10:47. He IS the elected and appointed Minister. It is his job to ensure the Medical Council do THEIR job. Clearly, the Medical Council, like others, indulge in make-believe instead of administering MEDICAL standards. I am not a "health professional" but I can easily discern where the Council has strayed out of its lane. So could you, if you are honest.
Vic how is he doing with the health system in NZ, one might ask? Not very well at all according to outcomes over the last two years. So yes, he is impressively unqualified according to results. Match that with his lack of qualifications and your argument is looking somewhat legless. Career bureaucrat politicians like him are a cancer on NZ society.
Vic hasn’t read studies about health outcomes. Therefore he or she is unqualified to comment on a politician stepping outside of their lane. Stay in your lane, Vic.
In the 1966 census only 165,000 people were identified as Maori (50%+ Maori bloodline) maxing out the reproductive averages of Maori in the interim, there can be no more than 550,000 Maori in NZ, the other 450,000 are ‘Pākehā Maori’ who have twigged that claiming to be part of the Maori group brings major benefits. At this rate of ‘conversion’ we will all be Maori by 2040 and the problem of ‘inequalities’ will go away.
Up to a million Maori people you estimate.
I'm saying actually, there are none.
I going to take "my whalers' pot", fill it with sea water, add some colonial herbs & spices and in bringing it to the boil - add the following, which no doubt will have "the Gordon Ramsay's" spitting..
Since Medicine was introduced to New Zealand, it was available to those (including Maori) who needed a Medical Doctor.
Sadly as the esteemed Medical Profession no doubt found, Maori "did not understand nor trust white man magic".
Jump to the 1950's moving forward, that same "mantra" prevailed, it would be interesting to know how many Maori, then (as they still do now) arrived at a Hospital ED and sought treatment - and wondered why The Dr's "moved with haste" due to what was in front of them.
Also from this came "an admission" to a Hospital ward and all Hospital's went out of there way to accommodate Maori patients along with their Whanau, something that was not always accorded to White NZ.
Now, I know that a finger has been "pointed", but we should also add those of Polynesian ethnicity -if only NZ knew just how they congregate at Middlemore ED - some of them very sick.
Any who reads this, if you have former service with an Ambulance Service, you may recall "interesting episodes" when called a residence of either Maori or Polynesian people.
If anyone remembers "Red Nose Day", what intrigued me a Conference (on the subject of Infant Deaths) just how many were from Polynesian Families, and also some Maori domains, education from those.
times did nothing to quell the problem.
To relate to the article, is it because of "historical mumbo jumbo" within Maori & Polynesian ethnicities that "something had to be done"?
Mind you there are many "white Kiwi's" who do not have a Doctor to visit and they "clog" ED's just as much as others.
Also, over past years how many Minister's of Health have we had, that have shown incompetence, in the Ministerial Chair (Health) they occupied.
Also we have many "return appointees" who re visit their Doctor, because the last dose of sugar pill is not working, thus the Doctor has "to re-consult" (again) - if they do not, then "complaints are made".
You have the same element turn up at ED.
mudbayripper, I agree. Who would have thought being an ever increasingly small fractional descendant of a Treaty subject could involve so much controversy and how just a trace of that pedigree results in a lifetime of inequitable outcomes no matter what one does and all due of the bias of the 'privileged' colonisers - in this case Doctors. Scoff KFC & fastfoods, booze, smoke, take hard drugs, seldom work or exercise, and have the highest rate of physical violence and killing against one's own people, then lay the blame elsewhere without a shred of evidence, let alone looking at the contributing personal responsibility factors. But dying a few years younger - that's all the proof one needs to require those errant Dr's to be appropriately reined in and 'schooled' in their treatment practises that must assuredly be loaded with unconscious bias given their predominantly pakeha heritage?
Poor-maori-eh?
Its as if the Medical Council is enacted in the Constitution and it cannot be changed. But we don't have a constitution. We have a government and one that prefers to enable this by doing nothing. And we know it's the National component, the one led by a man so adverse to the Treaty Principles Bill that sits idly by.
Nationals polling is not frozen just like it's responses to this insane ideology for no reason. Its it?
Even if TTOW WAS in fact a guarantee of special status and privilege to a separate race called Māori—we all know that it was not—the ‘Māori’ of today are not the Māori of 1840.
The elephant in the room is that imported bloodlines have so diluted the original Māori race to the extent that ‘Māori’ now exists only as a cultural concept.
It would be virtually impossible—no matter how brown the skin and Polynesian the features—to find a ‘Māori’ who does not possess more of the blood of the coloniser than of the colonised.
This alone means the passage of time has rendered TTOW redundant.
If you truly believe TTOW was intended to bestow separate, different, or superior rights in perpetuity upon a subset of NZers with an ever-declining Māori blood quantum, you need to go boil your head to clear your thoughts.
We don’t even need to address the question of whether unearned ethnocentric privilege is in Te Tirit, other than to abolish it quicksmart.
Excellent article. As a side note, the Medical Council is just one of a number of registration authorities for health care providers. The Nursing Council, The Physiotherapy Board and others are just as much ideologically driven as the Medical Council. Simeon Brown's letter should be copied and strengthened to ALL regulatory authorities
Post a Comment
Thank you for joining the discussion. Breaking Views welcomes respectful contributions that enrich the debate. Please ensure your comments are not defamatory, derogatory or disruptive. We appreciate your cooperation.