Kerre Woodham: Surely it should be based on need alone

The headline in the Herald this morning says, “Auckland surgeons must now consider ethnicity and prioritising patients for operations”. But I think this has been going on for some time, certainly the texts I've received over the past year indicate that this has been going on for some time.

ACT party leader David Seymour backed that up when he told Mike Hosking this morning that he's had surgeons, in his office, telling him that they were being told to take ethnicity into account when deciding who should get an operation first, and that they were uncomfortable about it. David Seymour said, well we need evidence that this is in fact a public health policy. And now the evidence is here.

Te Whatu Ora have come out and said yes, absolutely, this is what we're doing. Ethnicity will be taken into account, given that Maori Pacific Island patients have historically had unequal access to health care, so this is Te Whatu Ora’s way of fixing that.

Health officials stress that ethnicity is just one of five factors considered and deciding when a person gets surgery. David Seymour made the point that if the other equity adjusting factors are applied properly, then Maori and Pacifica, who need surgery, will get it.

There's got to be equality of opportunity, but equality of outcome is another factor entirely. These other factors should come into play. If you are economically deprived, if you are living in a remote geographical location, all that sort of thing, that should help to level the playing field.

I can understand why some doctors are really uncomfortable about this. Surely it should be based on need and need alone. As far back as Hippocrates, surely, that was how doctors decided who they would treat.

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