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National | Health

Māori voice in Coalition's Covid-19 surveillance and testing strategy

The national Māori pandemic group, Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā, has finally gained ground to get a Māori voice in the government's strategy around Covid-19.

Member Dr Rawiri Jansen has today been announced as part of the Covid-19 Surveillance and Testing Strategy Group that will advise the government and oversee its surveillance and testing plans.

It comes after criticism that the group’s co-chairs, Sir Brian Roche and Heather Simpson, were not well equipped to address the needs of Māori and Pacfika communities within the strategy.

National Hauora Coalition chief executive Simon Royal said Simpson and Roche earlier this year led the health and disability review delivered to the government in which they disregarded the views of the Māori claimant groups and the Waitangi tribunal claim Wai 2575.

“The review disregarded the views of its own expert and advisory group and many other members of their own taskforce particularly in regard to greater levels of Māori participation and involvement in the infrastructure that would develop policy,” Royal said.

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Māori health leaders disappointed in Govt's response to support Māori during COVID-19 / Te Ao

In April,  Jansen told Te Ao Tapatahi that the government's Covid-19 action plan did not go far enough to keep Māori safe. The plan announced on March 22 included $56 million to be fully committed to Māori communities.

Jansen said Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā was disappointed with the plan and it lacked details of how the Ministry of Health, district health boards and mainstream health providers would ensure equitable healthcare for Māori during the Covid-19 reponse and recovery.

“We think it provides real high-level aspirational statements but it actually needs to offer clear tangible actions that will be undertaken by the health system to address equity,” he said.

New strategy

Health Minister Chris Hipkins says the Covid-19 Surveillance and Testing Strategy Group will identify any barriers and improvements needed for the surveillance and testing plans.

”The group will report to me on the implementation of the updated Covid-19 testing plan and the surveillance plan and will work with government agencies and stakeholders, including private sector employers and unions, to gather useful information,” Hipkins says.

The strategy will also focus on ensuring cases are rapidly identified; identifying and minimising any undetected community spread; monitoring people at higher risk of exposure and ensuring Māori and Pasifika people gain effective and equitable access to testing.

Other members of the group include Dr Api Talemaitoga who is a GP, and the chair of NZ College of GPs Pacific Chapter, as well as Professor Philip Hill, McAuley Professor of International Health and Director of the Centre for International at the University of Otago.

Hipkins says regular Covid-19 testing needs to be part of “our new normal.”

“Our plan will ensure anyone with flu-like symptoms will get tested; we deliver regular asymptomatic testing of border staff,” he says.

“This is a big operation. We already have among the highest rates of testing in the world for the number of cases we have and are well positioned globally but we can do even better to reduce the risk of new cases further.

Hipkins has given the group four weeks to complete the review.