Healthcare based on need trickier than you think Mr Luxon

need stamp over the word ethicity

9 Oct 2024

Lucy O’Hagan

I was trying a break from the news last month, but the headline that punched through was “Christopher Luxon slams Hawke’s Bay doctors for prioritising young Māori and Pasifika” (RNZ, online 11 September). He went on to say he had a “very simple approach to healthcare, which is based off need, not ethnicity or race”.

Very simple indeed, Mr Luxon. Except you failed to say how you are going to assess need. Need is far from simple to define, Mr Luxon, and believe it or not, the health professionals you went on to call “out of line, out of order” have spent decades trying to work out how to direct healthcare to actual health need. It’s tricky.

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Key issues

HEALTH SERVICES AND SYSTEMS

Covering developments in the provision, funding and organisation of health care services.

EQUITY

Exploring the impacts of the health system on minorities within the population, notably including Māori, Pacifica, Asians and LGBTQI.

DRUGS, DEVICE AND DIAGNOSTICS

Covering prescription medicines and medical devices.

PUBLIC HEALTH

Focusing on efforts to promote health and prevent disease through social and economic interventions.

DIGITAL HEALTH

Exploring the potential digital transformation to provide a more connected and accessible health system.

TE TIRITI

Monitoring how the health reforms and the performance of the health sector uphold Te Tiriti obligations.