Minister wants action on Ma¯ori vaccination rates
District health boards will soon have ‘‘no choice’’ but to improve Covid-19 vaccination rates for Ma¯ori, Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare says.
The warning comes ahead of plans which would speed up funding to Ma¯ori health providers.
Henare said he was ‘‘disappointed’’ with boards overseeing low Covid vaccine uptake in their Ma¯ori communities.
The boards face increasing scrutiny for how they work with Ma¯ori. One health provider in Taira¯whiti resorted to fundraising for a vaccine bus despite Government assurances such initiatives would be publicly funded.
‘‘I have been working with the DHBS from the start of the vaccination roll-out for Ma¯ori and I am disappointed with the inconsistencies across a number of DHBS,’’ Henare said in Parliament yesterday.
‘‘Many of us know the number of challenges that have already been well publicised; there is a bottleneck in funding to providers to allow them to do what will be done. That is one of the things we will be looking at – expediting funding to providers.’’
The Government has promised $87 million to support Ma¯ori vaccination. Despite this, Tairawhiti and Taranaki DHBS have some of the lowest Ma¯ori vaccination rates in the country for eligible people aged under 49, along with the DHBS in Christchurch, West Coast, Rotorua, Northland, Manawatu¯, and Bay of Plenty.
More than 67 per cent of Ma¯ori are only partially protected from Covid, having had one dose of Pfizer, compared to 86 per cent of the overall eligible population.
Henare said there was a disconnect between the boards and Ma¯ori health providers.
A successful vaccine roll-out is central to the Government’s new Covid management plans.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is due to detail today its new ‘‘traffic light’’ system to manage Delta once vaccination rates are high.
Henare is also expected to outline renewed efforts to boost vaccination rates including changes to funding arrangements and data-sharing.
Ma¯ori are more at-risk of hospitalisation or death from Covid19 and have been infected at higher rates, making up 45.7 per cent of the community cases in the Delta outbreak over the past two weeks.