WELLINGTON - Dealing with health differences between Maori, Pacific Islanders and other New Zealanders is a priority in the Government's health strategy.
The draft New Zealand Health Strategy, described yesterday as a "blueprint" for health sector change, identifies 11 other areas for immediate action.
These are to reduce smoking, obesity, suicides, alcohol and drug abuse, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and violence in relationships, while increasing the level of physical activity, improving oral health and ensuring appropriate child health and immunisation services.
Health Minister Annette King said that despite the commitment of people working in the health sector, some New Zealanders had "lost trust" in the system that had been dominated recently by a commercial focus.
They were no longer confident they would be cared for when they were ill, or would have adequate support if they had a disability. The strategy set out to address this.
Goals would be covered in agreements between district health boards and the Health Minister. Boards, with local communities, would choose targets to fit local needs.
The document, on which the public has until July 28 to comment, said smoking - which kills 4700 people annually - was the major cause of preventable death.
Data showed 15 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women were obese, while 40 per cent of males and 30 per cent of females were overweight, increasing the risk factor in a number of life-threatening diseases. A lack of exercise by at least one-third of New Zealanders carried similar risks.
The report said the youth suicide rate was one of the highest in the OECD, and that nearly one in five New Zealanders would suffer an alcohol problem.
Cancer was the second leading cause of death, with 17,000 new cases registered annually, but top of the list was heart disease, with about 40 per cent of deaths. Diabetes caused about 1200 deaths a year.
Under the reforms, the emphasis is being shifted from individual needs to a population approach. The Government has argued the need for abandoning the "competitive model" of recent years, because it considers competition had not improved health overall.
Mrs King said the competitive model focused too much attention on hospitals and not enough on the causes of illness. Easily preventable illnesses were filling wards for lack of community-based health care.
National's health spokesman, Wyatt Creech, said the strategy was "full of repetitive jargon. Its goals are nothing more than 'mother's milk and apple pie.' No one disagrees with them. The public was expecting to see concrete proposals."
There were no benchmarks or quantities and no funding or certainty in the document.
Act's health spokesman, Ken Shirley, described the document as "quite frankly 42 pages of drivel put together by a minister whose key reforms are in a shambles."
The Medical Association welcomed the document but said more detail was needed.
- NZPA
Strategy restores 'lost health trust'
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