Patients that are members of New Zealand’s indigenous groups, the Māori and Pacific peoples, will take priority on elective surgery waiting lists over other ethnicities in an identical condition, according to The Guardian.
The equity adjustor is a tool being implemented in New Zealand hospitals that utilizes a point-scoring algorithm to weigh ethnicity along with sickness level, location and time spent on a waitlist, depending on the surgery, The Guardian reported. Public health specialists have said that the change is necessary to make up for inequalities that the Māori and Pacific people have experienced at other points in the health system. (RELATED: New York Bill Requires Medical Students Take ‘Implicit Bias’ Training To Improve ‘Health Care Outcomes’)
The tool is meant to address “longstanding inequities in Māori health,” said Rawiri McKree Jansen, chief medical officer for Te Aka Whai Ora/The Māori Health Authority, according to The Guardian.
Auckland, New Zealand, has been using the new technology since February, but its use was made public on Monday and will be implemented in other regions of the nation, The Guardian reported.
“If you don’t make these courageous decisions, like introducing a ethnic dimension to the decision making, we’ll never make the changes that we want to make in terms of health outcomes.” said Collin Tukuitonga, associate professor of public health at the University of Auckland, The Guardian reported.
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – JUNE 16: A notice to the public advising them of possible inconvenience during the junior doctors strike, hangs on the door of the accident and emergency entrance at Auckland City Hospital, June 16, 2006 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Sandra Mu/Getty Images)
The use of the tool has caused political controversy in New Zealand, with the libertarian-right Act party and the center-right National being against ethnicity being a factor in treatment, according to The Guardian.
The health minister was asked to look at the criteria “to make sure that there is a reassurance that we are not replacing one form of discrimination with another,” said Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, The Guardian reported.
Clinical need “always takes precedence and the equity adjustor doesn’t interfere with that,” said surgical services manager Duncan Bliss, who developed the tool, to Newsroom.
Medical professionals have disagreed about the use of the tool. The new system has “disgusted” one surgeon, the New Zealand Herald reported.
“It’s ethically challenging to treat anyone based on race, it’s their medical condition that must establish the urgency of the treatment,” the surgeon said.
General Practice New Zealand did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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