Study to aid iwi health providers in the future

Turanga Health primary care kaiwhakahaere Bobbie Cameron (left) with Hineariki Robin and Poaua Puia at a Covid-19 vaccination clinic in Te Karaka, March 2022. Picture by Brennan Thomas, Strike Photography

Turanga Health continues to receive recognition for its Covid-19 response by being included in two prominent nationwide studies.

The health provider was innovative and agile during the first two years of its Covid-19 response, creating whānau-friendly vaccination settings leading to increased numbers of iwi immunised, chief executive Reweti Ropiha said.

Between 2020 and 2022, Turanga Health was “punching above its weight”.

“While the health sector, other regional providers and the Government lacked confidence to work at pace, Turanga Health shaped and designed services that made an impact,” Mr Ropiha said.

In July 2021, just 11,230 eligible people in Tairāwhiti had received their first dose of the vaccine, including 3799 Māori.

By the end of June 2022, 34,339 eligible people had received their first dose, including 17,073 Māori.

At the time, former Te Whatu Ora Tairāwhiti district director Jim Green said it was “a remarkable turnaround”.

Since the pandemic, Covid-19 response research has moved swiftly.

“When there was a chance to be involved, Turanga Health felt it had an obligation to do so,” Mr Ropiha said.

“It was important that Turanga Health put up its hand and said ‘yes’ to projects like this so iwi health providers were in a stronger position to do more for Māori in the future.”

Turanga Health’s work has been included in a Ministry of Health-funded study looking into the ongoing impacts of Covid-19 and future pandemic responses.

Twenty-three studies form part of the national project, delving into topics such as aged-care residents, Pacific peoples, digital contact tracing and mandates.

Turanga Health is looking at the response of its staff and services between 2020 and 2022, what worked well, and what impact that had on equity of services for Māori.

The local study, Tūranga Tangata Rite, includes an exhaustive review of all the work carried out between 2020 and 2022, as well as interviews, surveys and wānanga with kaimahi and stakeholders.

Public feedback collected in real time as “whānau voice” will also be collated to recapture the experiences of service users.

“Tūranga Tangata Rite will uncover what equity of access for Māori should look like,” Mr Ropiha said.

“Turanga Health’s approach was about flexibility and hospitality, or Turanga faces in Turanga spaces.

“We now have an incentive to share

any available tools and knowledge to ensure that a disruption like Covid-19 has the smallest impact possible.

“We’re not saying we had all the solutions, but this pandemic has taught us that we were much more relevant than we thought,” Mr Ropiha said.

The second project Turanga Health is involved in looks at how Māori health providers can measure the impact and social value of their activities, and whether the tool known as Social Return on Investment might be the way to do it.

The study is funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

“Making a difference to iwi health outcomes is the main objective of these research projects.”