Commenting on reports in today’s New Zealand Herald that Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand has introduced a new Equity Adjustor Score that requires patients to be prioritised on the basis of geographic location, deprivation and ethnicity alongside standard factors such as clinical priority, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said:

“Decisions over deciding the priority of patients for surgery – and how taxpayer dollars are spent – should be made solely on the basis of clinical need and not on demographic factors such as ethnicity. We should trust the judgement of experienced surgeons to make decisions about which patients are in most urgent need.

“Enforced ranking of patients on the basis of ethnicity has no place in New Zealand’s health system. We should be backing clinical professionals over Wellington-based Te Whatu Ora bureaucrats to make these critical healthcare decisions.”

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