The Prime Minister and Associate Health Minister have been left shaking their heads after a Māori health provider resorted to crowdfunding to pay for a mobile vaccination clinic. It shows how big the disconnect is between Wellington and some of the country’s more remote communities, writes political editor Jo Moir.
Peeni Henare’s biggest job this year has been getting out on the road as the minister responsible for Māori health and spreading the message to providers that the money is there to getting vaccines in arms.
He travelled the length of the country between March and May after an initial $40 million was announced to train vaccinators and jump-start the Māori rollout.
“Many people in those first three months as I was going around the country were either lazy, had a huge dose of apathy or hadn’t quite had their questions answered before they were ready to get the vaccine,’’ Henare told Newsroom last month.
The Māori vaccination rate has been consistently behind the national rate since the outset.
While Māori in older age groups are now at high levels, most of the Māori population is spread across younger cohorts.
The number of eligible Māori fully vaccinated is just 44.6 percent compared to a national rate of 65.9 percent.
And in some regions, like Tairāwhiti and Taranaki, the woefully low rates for Māori are a national shame.
The Government blames the low rates on the relationship between the local District Health Board and its Māori and iwi providers.
On Monday Jacinda Ardern said the “movement of funding between DHBs and providers is great in some areas”, while in others it is “a little more difficult’’.
That should hardly come as a surprise to Ardern when her government announced in April it was scrapping DHBs because of the appalling postcode lottery they’ve become.
Ardern was visibly frustrated when asked what had led to Te Aroha Kanarahi Trust in Tairāwhiti using crowdfunding platform, Givealittle, to raise $122,000 for a mobile vaccination clinic at the weekend.
Newsroom asked how it had even happened when $87m was set aside by the Government specifically for the Māori vaccination rollout.
“No one, not one region in this country should have to rely on a fundraising campaign to set up something that we are directly working hard to support,’’ she told Newsroom.
Where there were gaps or difficulties accessing the needed funding or resources, it needed to change, Ardern said.
It’s been eight months since money was first set aside for Māori providers – how there are still remote communities scratching around for mobile vaccination clinics beggars belief.
It speaks to the age-old problem where just because a decision is made in a meeting room in Wellington it doesn’t necessarily mean it translates into something tangible in the community it’s intended for.
But in some cases, the communication issues do go both ways.
Newsroom understands Tairāwhiti providers had the ear of Henare, who was on the ground in Gisborne late last week, and at no point mentioned the need for a mobile clinic.
There has still been no explanation provided to ministers as to why it wasn’t raised as an issue then and there, even in follow-up conversations with Henare on Sunday night after the crowdfunding palaver came to light.
Trustee Tina Ngata told RNZ on Monday the vaccination van had been proposed to the DHB and Ministry of Health, but hadn’t been approved.
Henare’s team is now working fast to kit out appropriate vehicles for the terrain to get vaccination teams out on the road as soon as possible.
It’s unclear what will happen with the public money raised over the weekend.
Newsroom understands the message from Ministers to Te Aroha Kanarahi Trust is that the funding is coming from the Government and it’s for those who organised the Givealittle page to work out what to do with the $122,000 – including possibly returning it to donors.
This is not the first time a Māori health provider has been left looking for a way to go around its local DHB.
In Taranaki, Tui Ora chief executive Hayden Wano, is working on a plan with other providers in the region to get its funding direct from the Ministry of Health and cut out the DHB.
Wano has blamed a lack of flexibility and regimented contract requirements as a hold-up in getting the programmes in place to get more Māori vaccinated.
Just 38 percent of eligible Māori are fully vaccinated in Taranaki.
The Government has repeatedly denied its decision-making has led to poor vaccination rates for Māori. Defending that is getting more difficult by the day.
Ardern told Newsroom she had been hearing feedback over the past two to three weeks from Māori health providers that DHBs were putting up barriers.
On Friday she visited Taranaki and the week before she was in Gisborne.
Ardern says she’s made commitments to change the way some providers are accessing funding and how health data is shared.
Delta has been in the community for more than two months now, and many will be wondering why that commitment is only coming now.
The Government has repeatedly denied its decision-making has led to poor vaccination rates for Māori. Defending that is getting more difficult by the day.
Ministers at the Cabinet table have no doubt had best intentions, but they’ve also known DHBs can’t be relied on to deliver.
Ardern said finding the unvaccinated was getting increasingly tougher.
Getting money and resources to the most hard-to-reach communities has never been more critical.
