We listened to you, analysed your needs and how to best address them, and took action.

Earlier this month, I called for a meeting with the Chief Executives of Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand), Te Aka Whai Ora (Māori Health Authority), and the Ministry of Health. Their feedback was excellent, and they were happy that we approached them. I'm sharing with you here what we agreed on and what’s next.

I want to highlight a couple of things at the beginning. The first is that these discussions come as part of our broader mandate to represent our ethnic communities and their needs in public policy formulation.

Second, as you know, such system transformations usually take time. Time is needed to ensure that the new system is more efficient and really addresses the problems of the previous system. However, we're happy that we made such a strong start and got the ethnic communities' voices to the table.

We all agreed that the New Zealand health system must be designed for every New Zealander to equitably meet the needs of all communities.

This will require designing a system around communities and people, and developing ongoing relationships between health institutions and our ethnic communities.

The collaboration between Te Whatu Ora, Te Aka Whai Ora, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry for Ethnic Communities will include work at both the strategic and on-the-ground levels.

Areas of immediate collaboration agreed upon by the four Chief Executives for the first year are:

At the strategic level:

We will collaborate in developing New Zealand Health Strategy and collecting disaggregated data and better evidence based on ethnic communities.

o   The overarching New Zealand Health Strategy in the Act is still being developed. This Strategy will guide health entities to protect, promote and improve the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders.

o   Chief Executives of the Ministries of Health and Ethnic Communities agreed that the two Ministries will work together to ensure that ethnic communities engage and play a strong role in shaping the Strategy.

o   The Chief Executive of Te Whatu Ora agreed that her agency will focus on a better understanding of the spread of ethnic communities across the different regions of Aotearoa New Zealand.

At the ground level:

We're joining forces to provide better access to interpretation services and mental health services to ethnic communities.  

Interpretation services

o   The Chief Executive of Te Whatu Ora agreed that her agency will look into how the provision of interpretation services, which is working well in some regions could be offered more widely across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Mental Health Services

o   The Chief Executive of Te Whatu Ora agreed that her agency will:

• undertake a stocktake of current Asian and ethnic providers that the agency is aware of. From a national view, this work will assist in addressing gaps and provide opportunities for connecting up services where required.
• look into concerns about the need for more psychosocial support for the survivors of the terror attacks in Christchurch.

We are confident that this collaboration will lead to tangible results to positively impact the quality and access to health services our ethnic communities get.

We are open to getting your feedback and want to hear from you. You can always share your ideas with us at info@ethniccommunities.govt.nz 

A photo at the end of the meeting at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, Wellington.

In the photo, the four Chief Executives and their teams: Riana Manuel [in green] – Chief Executive, Te Aka Whai Ora, Dr Diana Safarti – Director-General Health and Chief Executive MoH [next to Riana], Mervin Singham – the Chief Executive of the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, and Fepulea’i Margie Apa – Chief Executive Te Whatu Ora [next to Mervin].

Contact Us

Our regional teams are here to help facilitate and encourage inclusiveness and diversity in Aotearoa and to offer support and advice to all of our ethnic communities.

You can reach out to us by email at info@ethniccommunities.govt.nz.

Take care of yourselves, your families, loved ones and wider communities.

Ngā mihi nui

Mervin Singham
Chief Executive
Ministry for Ethnic Communities