The avoidable hospitalisation rate was 40 per cent higher for Maori than for non-Maori, equating to almost 3400 potentially avoidable Maori hospital admissions per year.
Dr Richard Vipond, public health registrar for the Bay of Plenty District Health Board's Maori Health Planning and Funding department, said treatable illnesses included malignancies of the lung, breast and liver, plus chronic lung disease (secondary to smoking), diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.
"Each of these conditions (with the exception of melanoma skin cancers) has both a higher incidence and higher mortality for Maori than non-Maori throughout New Zealand and is a reflection of differences in access to the determinants of health which Maori experience," Dr Vipond said.
He said there was a marked difference in access to "determinants of health" factors, including lifestyle, living and working conditions and socio-economic conditions.
Each of these areas needed attention and improvement to help reduce inequities, which were "not only unfair, but are also unnecessary", he aded.
Dr Vipond said the health board was working on several projects, including a Maori Health Steering Group aimed at reducing inequalities and a website that tracked DHB performance and comparisons.
Between 2003 and 2012 the rate of death from all causes was 2.3 times higher for Maori than non-Maori. Maori women have a life expectancy of 75.9 years, 8.6 years lower than non-Maori women. Maori men have a life expectancy of 71.4 years, 9.3 years lower than for non-Maori men.
Maori women were most likely to die from ischaemic heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation chief executive Roger Taylor said the best people to make a difference in Maori health were those within iwi and hapu.
The Primary Health Organisation is co-owned by iwi and its board would meet this week to consider a Maori health proposal.
Mr Taylor said the PHO had successfully closed much of the gap between Maori and others in the Western Bay in recent years and their work was having a positive impact.
The Bay of Plenty District Health Board Maori Health Profile 2015
* About 850 hospitalisations per year of Maori children were potentially avoidable through preventative or treatment intervention in primary care.
* Maori were 55 per cent more likely than non-Maori to be admitted to hospital for a mental disorder during 2011-2013.
* In 2013, 14 per cent of Bay of Plenty Maori adults aged 15 years and over were unemployed, compared to 6 per cent of non-Maori.
* Smoking rates are decreasing but were more than twice as high for Maori as for on-Maori (36 per cent compared to 15 per cent).
* Bay of Plenty residents living in Maori households were more than 3.5 times as likely as others to be in crowded homes.
