Jodi Yeats
Health Care Aoteaora is very disappointed efforts it has been
involved in to get pay parity for primary care nurses and iwi
providers have not been rewarded in today's Budget.
Maori and iwi health providers and the NZNO appeared together in
front of the Health Select Committee on 29 April this year to put
their case for equitable funding compared with DHB colleagues, and
last May the lobby group presented a petition to Parliament signed
by 11,000 people.
While there's new money for GP training, there's no new money for
primary nurses and iwi providers, which is worrying, Health Care
Aotearoa te kaihautu Rowena Gotty says.
B4Schools transfer of concern
Health Care Aotearoa is also concerned about the fact funding for
B4 School checks is being transferred from health to national child
health services, which can only mean Plunket, Ms Gotty says.
That is likely to upset some Maori providers who have been
contracted to provide Well Child services and who are working with
B4 School checks now, but whose relationships with Plunket haven't
been the greatest, she says.
However, if the suggestion is inspired by a very successful scheme
in MidCentral, that's very good. In MidCentral, three iwi providers
are working with PHOs and Plunkett and the collaboration is working
very well, Ms Gotty says.