A plan from New Zealand's newest medical school to remove ethnicity as a priority admission factor has been dubbed regressive, disappointing, frustrating and offensive.
By Rachel Moore of RNZ
Set to take its first cohort in 2028, the University of Waikato said a decision on the selection process would be made next year.
General Practitioners Aotearoa chair Dr Buzz Burrell said it's astonishingly disappointing.
"It's both backwards and naive and we were heard that what they instead are going to do is to make sure that applicants are committed to Māori health, that should be a given.
"That should be a basic requirement of every doctor working in New Zealand. That's almost like being committed to breathing. It's a completely meaningless statement.
"It's a retrograde step. It's a naive step and it's an unhelpful step. And certainly, almost offensive to Māori in this country and offensive to the statistics, which are not good."
He said having Māori and Pasifika representation was highly important.
"About 6% of the country's doctors are Māori, whereas about 18% of the population is Māori.
"And if we look at the health statistics for Māori in particular, Māori men, they die seven years younger than non-Māori men, and the women, Māori women are dying six years younger than non-Māori women.
"They're really quite confronting statistics, and it very much is important that Māori people do have Māori doctors."
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said promoting access to entry meant a wider cross section of people could access those courses.
"The standards required to successfully complete those courses and that training remain as high as they ever have."
She said through priority entry they were gradually seeing the number of Māori and Pasifika doctors and dentists increase, and removing that was regressive.
"Given all of the good things that are proposed about this medical school, inclusion in terms of rurality, a focus on graduate entry, a hope to include community-based and smaller hospitals, supporting training and development for this new generation of doctors would be great so it's just really disappointing and frustrating that they're not taking current, good practice and best evidence to inform their admissions policy."
She had written to the university to say the association was disturbed at the changes and the resignation of the medical school's academic lead Dr Rawiri Keenan.
The university responded saying the difference in view with Keenan was not about whether there would be a substantial number of Māori students in the programme, but about the way they would be selected - on the basis of ethnicity or on the basis of "demonstrated competence to serve Māori communities".
"The good news about this government being supportive of a third medical school is, is not such good news, if it's going to put checks, balances, limits on, I guess, the kind of processes that a medical school can run in order to ensure that it's reflective of our broader society," Dalton said.
Pro vice-chancellor of health at the University of Waikato Professor Jo Lane said the focus was to select students and produce doctors who were committed to working in primary care in regional and rural areas. He said the student selection process was still under development, but it would aim to reflect New Zealand's communities.
"Our admissions process is structured around a single pathway, with applicants receiving points across overlapping priorities rather than being considered through separate admission pathways."
He said a final decision on selection criteria would be made next year.
Meanwhile, the University of Auckland said it had defined admission pathways and criteria, based on specific, evidence-informed policies.
"These policies are developed within programme and university regulations, as well as in alignment with legal and regulatory expectations.
"As an example, the University runs its Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme because of the evidence it works. It also aligns with the Australasian Medical Council accreditation standards."
University of Otago pro-vice-chancellor of health sciences Associate Professor Megan Gibbons said it had an admissions policy for health professional programmes that's designed to promote equity for students from underrepresented priority groups.
"Not only Māori and Pacific students, but also those from rural, low socioeconomic, refugee communities - with an academically strong focus.
"All students meet the same minimum academic standards to enter medicine and must meet and pass exactly the same academic requirements of the degree programme each year to progress and successfully graduate."
Gibbons said the pathways did not lower standards or guarantee entry, they ensured that once standards were met, selection decisions reflect long-term workforce needs that the market and open competition have repeatedly failed to meet on their own.
"This policy has led to record numbers of Māori and Pasifika students entering health professional programmes.
"However, despite this progress, there remains significant under-representation of Māori and Pacific health practitioners in the workforce."
Health NZ would not comment.
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