Pharmac has decided to disestablish its Māori advisory group.
In a statement, the chairperson of the drug funding agency Paula Bennett said the board made the decision to disestablish the group in order to put more focus on other partnership arrangements already in place.
These include the four Māori health professional bodies, iwi Māori Partnership Boards, and the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee within the Ministry of Health, she said.
“Pharmac wants to ensure all New Zealanders have access to the medicines and medical devices they need. Engaging effectively with Māori continues to be a priority for Pharmac, and Pharmac’s Board has been considering how best to do this,” Bennett said.
“I advised the co-chairs of Te Rōpū personally on 18 October.”
Pharmac established Te Rōpū in 2022 following a damning independent review of the agency and health outcomes for Māori, Pacific and people with disabilities.
The advice of Te Rōpū had directly led to Pharmac taking a different approach to funding diabetes treatments, former Pharmac director Dr Anthony Jordan said.
In July, associate health minister David Seymour told Pharmac it was “inappropriate” for the agency to keep considering the Treaty of Waitangi’s place in the health sector.
This led to Jordan quitting his position as he said he “could not with good conscience” continue to work for the agency following directions to stop factoring Te Tiriti o Waitangi into its decisions.
“It is not good to be a Māori man, in terms of morbidity and mortality, compared to your Pākeha counterparts. And, sadly, it’s the same for our wāhine. This is not new information, it is published year on year,” he said.
rnz.co.nz