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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Chief Health Officer Ashley Bloomfield have supported the admissions plan to the University of Otago School of Medicine, which has come under fire for being unfair.
The University of Otago offers a Maori gateway to medicine, which works by giving preference to Maori students. The goal is to create a healthcare workforce that better reflects New Zealand society.
Some parts of the admissions process are currently the subject of legal challenge.
On Friday, Bloomfield supported plans aimed at boosting diversity in the healthcare workforce, saying that a healthcare workforce that reflects the community was a key part of the government’s response to the latest Covid-19 outbreak. in Auckland.
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“When I went to medical school, which was quite some time ago in the 1980s, there was already a scheme, a scheme from the Auckland School of Medicine, which was the MPAS, Māori and Pacific Admissions Scheme, which recognized the need for support and ensure that Maori and Pacific students are admitted to medical school [and] they get support to qualify at the other extreme, “said Bloomfield.
He said Maori and Pacific people were underrepresented in the medical workforce, along with people of rural origin, who were also included in the University of Otago plan.
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Director Ashley Bloomfield have supported affirmative action to diversify the medical workforce.
Bloomfield said there was a good reason for admissions schemes like Otago’s, which is that people from those three communities were more likely to return to their communities to practice.
“In all three cases, these are people who are more likely to provide the kind of care that works for those communities,” said Bloomfield.
He said the most recent Covid-19 outbreak showcased the merits of a more diverse workforce.
“There is no better example of that than the last four weeks in Auckland, where it has been quite revealing how important it is for Maori and Pacific health professionals and providers to engage with these communities that have been the ones who have had Covid-19, and how successfully they have been able to work with those communities not only to meet their needs, but also to identify the close and casual contacts to contain the outbreak, ”said Bloomfield.
Ardern also endorsed those admission schemes. “I would say the same about diversity in our medical profession as I do about, say, diversity in Parliament, that we have a duty to represent the communities we are here to serve,” Ardern said.
“There are a number of reasons why, historically, groups have often been poorly represented in this place and to overcome that will require proactive policies and changes in the way we do things to improve that representation.
“I think there are many examples where that is the right thing to do,” he said.
Just a decade ago, only 7.6 percent of new national medical students in Otago identified as Maori and 2.7 percent as Pasifika. This has been reflected in the current medical workforce, where only 3.4% are Maori and 1.8% Pasifika.
The University of Otago has been successful in advancing its Maori, peaceful and rural roles. The Vice Chancellor of the Division of Health Sciences, Professor Paul Brunton, told RNZ that “between 2010 and 2016 there was 124 percent.
