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Summarised by Centrist
A group of doctors has called on the government to place the Medical Council of New Zealand under administration.
They argue that a proposed statement on Māori health introduces political ideology into medical regulation.
The organisation New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science (NZDSOS) sent a formal letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and several ministers objecting to the Council’s draft Statement on Hauora Māori, which is currently open for consultation.
The proposal encourages doctors to actively advance Māori health equity, address systemic bias, and reflect on their own attitudes and behaviour when treating Māori patients.
In their letter, NZDSOS doctors argue the draft moves beyond clinical standards into political territory.
“The draft statement is not a document about clinical competence,” the letter says, but rather, “It is a political manifesto dressed in medical language.”
The group objects to the requirement that doctors take “meaningful action to advance health equity for Māori” by dismantling what the document describes as
unfair systems and power imbalances.
The letter claims the proposal would treat doctors who question this framing as professionally deficient.
“That seems less of a standard and more a loyalty test,” the authors write. NZDSOS also links the proposal to wider concerns about the Council’s conduct during the COVID pandemic.
“We have seen this play out already,” the letter says. “Colleagues who raised COVID concerns in good faith remain ‘in process’ with the Medical Council five years later.”
