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Sometimes an article just makes your blood boil. I am normally on a lukewarm simmer when I read about Ardern’s so-called kindness in reference to all the cruel and unkind decisions made by her government but an article yesterday…well let’s just say that if I was a kettle it is now time to pour the tea.
For once the article wasn’t about kindness or COVID but it has much in common with the so-called kindness of our government’s COVID response. The article is actually about a terrible injustice, racism and treating people as second-class citizens with lesser rights because of their ethnicity but you wouldn’t guess as much from the way the article was written.
Just as cruelty from Ardern’s government such as preventing people from being at the bedside of their dying loved ones was called kindness, this article calls injustice and racism….well…read this work from the Ministry of Truth for yourself and be amazed.
Maori and Pasifika given priority in elective surgery waitlists
Maori and Pasifika waiting for elective surgery have been placed at the top of wait lists in the Wellington region, in a move hoped to improve their access to healthcare.
Treating one race better than another is racism by any objective measure but it is very effective at improving that race’s access to things. Just ask the American slave owners in the old South. Their access to wealth and health care was much improved by putting their well being ahead of the well being of their black slaves. If the above quote had stated that European and Asians were to be placed at the top of the queue the media would be outraged. Our media is racist because they only stand up to injustice and racism when it affects a favoured minority group. Where is the equity for all under the law?
A patient’s ethnicity will be now taken into account for specialist treatments, along with their level of clinical urgency and the number of days they have been on a wait list.
The ONLY relevant marker for the urgency on a surgical waiting list should be the patient’s health and the only fair and just way to organise such a list is to use medical triage.
Triage is the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments by the severity of their condition or likelihood of recovery with and without treatment. This rations patient treatment efficiently when resources are insufficient for all to be treated immediately; influencing the order and priority of emergency treatment, emergency transport, or transport destination for the patient.
It is completely unacceptable that Medical Triage is not being used to determine who goes to the top of the list. The idea that a grandmother who is less ill than someone else’s grandmother would get more points under this system and be helped first because of her ethnicity is repugnant.
[…] “Capital & Coast and Hutt Valley DHBs are prioritising Maori and Pasifika in our surgical scheduling processes.
[…] Speaking at a Capital & Coast District Heath Board meeting, board member Sue Kedgley said she was delighted to hear the DHB was prioritising Maori and Pasifika on the waiting lists.
Kedgley noted there had already been controversial comments around the Auckland DHB members considerations to also prioritise Maori and Pasifika patients for some elective surgeries.
Covid-19 had been called a “big bang” opportunity to reset an unfair health system.
Oh my goodness! How dare Sue Kedgley spout such a blatant lie. This is like telling us to be kind while stopping people from being at their dying loved one’s bedside. This is saying that black is white and that racism and injustice is ” fair.” There is NOTHING fair about this system and no amount of semantics and trying to twist the facts can change it.
Kedgley said it was not a matter of other people being sent to the bottom of the list.
“People are put on the list according to the number of ‘points’ they have. It’s not a matter of being bumped down,” she said.
“We have a very clear directive with the priority for equity for Maori and Pasifika. There’s a clear Government directive and this is one way of achieving it.”
This woman and Jacinda Ardern have so much in common. Ardern doesn’t know what kindness means and Sue Kedgley wouldn’t recognise equity if it hit her in the face.
Dr Shane Reti, National’s spokesperson for Maori health, said addressing health inequity for Maori and Pasifika people was “critically important”.
“This should be judged by clinical urgency rather than ethnic background though,” Reti said.
stuff.co.nz/national/health/121640802/mori-and-pasifika-given-priority-in-elective-surgery-waitlists
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