It's not just about Māori on waitlists – what about their lifespan?

Housing, income, education, alcohol, smoking and diet also affect Māori health outcomes, says Peter Davis. (Image: Getty)

Peter Davis

Sat, 24 Jun 2023

Debate has broken out about the use of an “equity adjuster” to use alongside clinical need in deciding access to waitlisted health interventions, such as elective surgery.I was a member of the Auckland district health board when, in 2020, our chair, Pat Snedden, challenged us about the issue of ethnic inequalities in health outcomes and access to healthcare. What could we, as a major DHB, do about this? We debated this long and hard and eventually, perhaps as an interim measure, this resulted in some patients being bumped...

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