Radical change on way for M¯aori as
To point to an individual Ma¯ori person walking out of a hospital, cured, is to miss the abiding truth that collectively we die more, and earlier, and get sicker, than those non-Ma¯ori strolling in and out around him.
On average, Ma¯ ori die seven years earlier than non-Ma¯ ori. In 2015, the heart disease death rate for Ma¯ ori per 100,000 people was double that for non-Ma¯ ori. (Both excluding Pasifika people)
Cancer, infant mortality, suicide. I could go on. Believe me when I say the stats are appalling and longstanding.
On Wednesday, Health Minister Andrew Little will reveal the Government’s plans for its new Ma¯ ori health authority.
The authority was part of a series of recommendations from the Health and Disability System Review released last year.
The toughest thing will be understanding what it all means. I digested the report myself and was struck by the thought that reading about health shouldn’t force you to selfmedicate.
This maddening love of technical words, jargon, forms like a poisonous crust at the top of the health system.
What is a ‘‘commissioning tool’’, I wondered, reading the report? A pen? A baseball bat?
Politicians love this zone: a dark pocket where you can say anything, get away with anything, because nobody really understands you.
It is the worst kind of code to decipher as a journalist: draining your will, and leaving you a passive vessel – much like navigating the health system itself.
Where am I going, you ask yourself? How do I get there? It would be nice to relax, but as an outsider you worry that once the dust settles from your vaporised kidney stone, you’ll limp out with a subtracted gall bladder as a bonus operation.
It is a maze where you are hemmed in by the expertise of others.
The review was completed in March 2020 and aimed to offer a clear path forward for the Government. One of its main jobs was to ‘‘ensure improvements in health outcomes of Ma¯ ori’’.
This problem was crystal