Assurances given on Maori health

WELLINGTON - Serious concerns raised by Maori health providers over the Government's health reforms have been heeded, says Associate Health and Maori Affairs Minister Tariana Turia.

She said yesterday that the Government would not jeopardise any of the gains Maori health providers had made over the past six years.

After consulting Maori health service providers across the country, she gave an assurance that the Government intended building on the initiatives they had started.

The Treasury has criticised the lack of a defined strategy for Maori health in the Government's planned reforms while Te Puni Kokiri (the Ministry of Maori Development) has raised concern that the new structure contains no mechanism for the direct funding of Maori health providers.

But Ms Turia said the Government was adamant that the health gains made through dedicated Maori health funding must not be jeopardised by the health sector changes. "This Government will not undermine this process."

Under the proposed reforms, the Health Funding Authority is being absorbed into the Ministry of Health and hospital and health services companies will be replaced with partly elected district health boards.

The Government also wants a more cooperative approach to health services than under the current regime.

- NZPA