Why is funding not linked to need?

The Government granted extra funding to General Practices to cope with the extra work around Covid-19. It provided three times as much per Maori or patient as it did for an under 60 European patient.

Now this might be justified if Maori and Pasifika were more prone to Covid, but in the opposite appears to be the case. The stats are here. Positive test cases are:

  1. European 0.8%
  2. Asian 0.6%
  3. Pacific 0.4%
  4. Maori 0.3%

So half as likely to get it but three times the funding!

In terms of overall cases the ethnicity breakdown is:

  • Europeans 71%
  • Asian 13%
  • Maori 8% (vs 17% of pop)
  • Pacific 5% (vs 8% of pop)

The Government hasn't released stats on the deaths by ethnicity but I've had suggested to me 100% of victims were European.

So again why has the extra funding gone towards the populations least at ?

Comments (72)

Login to comment or vote

Add a Comment