Barry Soper: The Government intended to roll out equity adjustor scores before media scrutiny

It seems the Government's put on ice plans for a nationwide roll out of the equity adjustor scores being given to Auckland patients on waiting lists for surgery because of the publicity given to them by The Herald and Newstalk ZB.

Since the story broke on Monday, the Prime Minister's spoken to his Health Minister Ayesha Verrall about the lists having one of its weightings devoted to ethnicity, putting Maori and Pacific patients at the top.

Chris Hipkins said he doesn't want to replace what he says is one form of discrimination in the clogged-up hospital system with another.

Barry Soper & Jason Walls: Auckland surgeons must now consider ethnicity in prioritising patients for operations - some are not happy

Auckland surgeons are now being required to consider a patient’s ethnicity alongside other factors when deciding who should get an operation first.

Several surgeons say they are upset by the policy, which was introduced in Auckland in February and gave priority to Māori and Pacific Island patients - on the grounds that they have historically had unequal access to healthcare.

Kerre Woodham: Surely it should be based on need alone

The headline in the Herald this morning says, “Auckland surgeons must now consider ethnicity and prioritising patients for operations”. But I think this has been going on for some time, certainly the texts I've received over the past year indicate that this has been going on for some time.

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.