Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa Maori Medical Practitioners
te-pati-maori
Mon Sep 27 2010 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa Maori Medical Practitioners
Monday, 27 September 2010, 10:18 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Hon Tariana Turia Associate Minister of Health
Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa Maori Medical Practitioners Association Sandford Events Centre, Opunake, Taranaki
Delivered by Teresa Wall, Deputy Director-General, Maori Health
I was delighted to accept the invitation from your Chair, David Jansen, to join you tonight for this special celebration. Please be assured that while I am unable to be with you in person, my thoughts will be with you all tonight, at this very important event.
Taranaki has much to be proud of, in hosting this annual Hui a Tau for Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa Maori Medical Practitioners Association – or as we more often say, Te Ora.
For it was from Taranaki, over a hundred years ago that the first Maori medical practitioner came – Sir Maui Pomare.
And it was also a Taranaki man, who in 1999, was welcomed as the Chief Advisor (Maori Health) at the Ministry of Health. Dr Tony Ruakere was both a skilled general practitioner as well as being extensively involved in health developments led by Taranaki iwi; talents and knowledge that he continues to impress us all with.
The position that Dr Ruakere was appointed to, had last been filled in 1928 by Dr Pohau Ellison – also from Taranaki. Dr Ellison was Director of the Division of Maori Hygiene. Prior to his appointment, the Director’s position had been filled by Te Rangi Hiroa, who had been in the role since 1919 – when he was the very first incumbent in the position.
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And in case you think the Taranaki legacy is only written by men, let me just mention the late Jacquie Papuni Sturm – the first Maori writer, to write in English; the first Maori woman to graduate with a Masters Degree – and born and bred here in Opunake.
Jacquie was of Taranaki and Whakatohea descent. At 18 years of age she began a Medical Intermediate Course at Otago University as part of a Department of Health scheme to recruit Maori doctors. Ultimately a medical career was not for Jacquie; the call of the pen more powerful than that of the scalpel or stethoscope.
I draw on the words of Jacquie Sturm from her poem ‘In Loco Parentis’ who talked about the impact of being fostered, and the tug of her being tangata whenua.
“Planted, nurtured, trained, pruned, grafted me; o_nly to find a native plant will always a native be”_
These five, proud descendants of Taranaki whakapapa are of course just a few of the names I could have mentioned of Maori medical students, doctors and medical practitioners who emerge from this rohe.
I wanted to remind us of some of the history of tangata whenua health; because it is a history we must be proud of, as we consider the spectacular growth in Maori health providers and in Maori health professionals over the last century and more.
And if there is one organisation that could trace the Taranaki influence it would be Te ORA with your unique database of active members working as clinicians, specialists, researchers and teachers.
For this is an organisation which has always been proud to be native; driven by your commitment to promote and protect the health of tangata whenua.
Whakapapa matters to you – indeed it is a fundamental source of strength in your mahi to assist Maori medical practitioners in their efforts to advance Maori health.
For it is whakapapa and whanaungatanga that has encouraged you to invest in closer links between Maori medical practioners and other national, professional and community groups.
I was so looking forward to being with you tonight; to celebrate your success as Te Ora, and also to congratulate you for your resounding success in inspiring leadership in the health sector.
I was extremely envious of all those who spent time on the recent study tour to Cuba, looking at lessons for building the medical workforce here in Aotearoa.
And Te ORA must be commended for the outstanding proposal you submitted to develop a specialist clinical leadership programme. It was the breadth of your vision to recruit and retain Māori medical graduates who will train in specialties to work in areas of high Māori health needs that saw you being awarded the Maori Health Innovation Fund, Te Ao Auahatanga Hauora Maori.
What really impressed me about this programme is the investment made in mentoring junior Maori doctors through your programme, Te Ngakau. A key focus for the programme is mentoring and support from a pool of Maori specialists for Maori doctors in training and new Maori specialists in their development pathways.
All of this seems to me to be fertile ground in which to plant another new seed, and that is the Maori Workforce Report, written by Dr Fiona Cram and funded by Te Kete Hauora.
Every single person at this hui, would know that the number of Maori medical practitioners active in the workforce is well below any number required to meet the growing demand and needs of Maori.
Sitting at just over three percent of the medical workforce, the leadership, recruitment and retention of the Maori medical and clinical specialist workforce is vital to achieve the progress that all of us desire.
And so this report is extremely timely, advising us, as it does, about how the projected increase in the population of tangata whenua will impact on tangata whenua demand for health services over the next ten to twenty years.
It states the obvious – the need to increase the number of Maori doctors in order to meet increase in demand that will fall, logically, out of the anticipated demographic changes. These changes are quite spectacular – the growth in the Maori population is projected to be about twice as fast as that of non-Maori.
And if our health status rates remain unchanged, Maori health outcomes in the next ten to twenty years are similarly expected to worsen in proportion to projected population increases.
But of course all this will change if Te Ora, Te Kete Hauora – and indeed if I have anything to say! All of us must stand strong, in our united commitment to lift the health and wellbeing outcomes of our people, and in doing so, to place us in the best possible position for our future.
The Maori Workforce Report provides us with just the stimulus we need, to know that we can indeed make the difference. It recommends a number of key points of intervention, including:
• Recruiting over 150 Maori students into medical education each year for the next ten years;
• Encouraging Maori secondary school students to study science and to be supported to do so;
• Endorsing curriculum changes in medical education;
• Ensuring there is support in workplaces to support Maori doctors to be Maori and to practice within Maori models of health care delivery.
I know that the moment you put goals out there, there will inevitably be some who set about telling us how difficult it will be to achieve the aspirations we set for ourselves.
But if I take the concept of recruiting 150 Maori students into medical education each year – perhaps we could look at it another way. If every one of us made a personal commitment to talk to just two Maori students about science, we might well be on the way to achieving the bigger goal. Of if we want to play safe, let’s aim for three and go for gold!
Because of course recruiting Maori into medical education can only happen if we have enough Maori students out there succeeding and completing the study of science at school.
Of course it also demands a more responsive school curriculum; teachers who are willing to engage with Maori worldviews; schools who are prepared to actively seek out the best interests of tangata whenua.
The Ministry of Health has assured me of their complete commitment to funding and supporting a range of initiatives to improvement recruitment and retention of Maori in health careers.
I’m talking about things like Kia Ora Hauora; which has recruited some 1326 students onto a health career pathway through an online portal – turning our rangatahi on through regional programmes all linked on the computer.
There’s a project jointly run by the University of Otago, the Ministry of Health and the Tertiary Education Commission to lift participation rates of Maori in Te Wai Pounamu.
Or there’s the Whakapiki Ake Project at Auckland University which includes a one year foundation programme, and COACH, a one –week school programme bringing nearly 70 students in the North Island together, to experience a local health workplace and become immersed in labs, workshops and wananga.
The report I am launching today is called Shifting Maori Health Needs, and I could leave one plea to this conference, it would be that rather than watching the needs of tangata whenua shift over time, as different competing issues take on importance, I would hope that the report encourages all of us to take up an active role.
By that I mean that we take action to shift the balance of power, to change the situations which don’t work – so that ultimately our future is in good hands – all of our hands – and great health is no longer an aspiration, but a realistic expectation for all of our whanau.
Tena tatou katoa
ENDS
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