Project Management

 GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, AND LAW 

Improving Access to Health Care Among New Zealand’s

Maori Population

| Lis Ellison-Loschmann, PhD, and Neil Pearce, PhD, DSc

The health status of indigenous peoples worldwide varies

according to their unique historical, political, and social circumstances. Disparities in health

between Maoris and non-Maoris

have been evident for all of the

colonial history of New Zealand.

Explanations for these differences involve a complex mix of

components associated with socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, availability of health care,

and discrimination.

Improving access to care is

critical to addressing health

disparities, and increasing evidence suggests that Maoris

and non-Maoris differ in terms

of access to primary and secondary health care services.

We use 2 approaches to health

service development to demonstrate how Maori-led initiatives are seeking to improve

access to and quality of health

care for Maoris. (Am J Public

Health. 2006;96:612–617. doi:

10.2105/AJPH.2005.070680)

THE HEALTH CIRCUMSTANCES

of indigenous peoples vary according to the unique historical,

political, and social characteristics of their particular environments, as well as their interactions with the nonindigenous

populations of the countries in

which they reside. An example is

the Maoris, the indigenous people of New Zealand. We focused

on the health realities of this

group, in particular the effects on

Maori health of health care services designed according to the

values and social processes of

non-Maoris.1

Significant differences in life

expectancy exist between

Maoris and non-Maoris in New

Zealand, but the role of health

care in creating or maintaining

these differences has been recognized and researched only recently. An analysis of Maori

health in the context of New

Zealand’s colonial history may

suggest possible explanations for

inequalities in health between

Maoris and non-Maoris, highlighting the role of access to

health care. Two potential approaches to...