Associate Minister for Health Georgina te Heuheu today launched standards to ensure quality service for traditional Maori healing practices.

"In launching these standards today we are recognising the value that continues to be placed on traditional healing as part of the spectrum of health care which people choose to use. The standards are designed to ensure that there is consistent practice in clinics throughout the country," Mrs te Heuheu said.

"Having health services Mäori people feel comfortable using is an important part of addressing the disparity in health statistics between Mäori and Pakeha," Mrs te Heuheu said.

"Increasingly in recent years, GPs, traditional healers and Maori nurses have been working alongside each other to provide a range of services that people feel comfortable in using."

These standards will assist healers to enhance the work that they do, by ensuring the quality and safety of the valuable services that they deliver.

They cover referrals to other health services, record keeping, rights and responsiblities of the patient, staff training, networking with other providers and the safe preparation, storage and labelling of medicines.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>