He Ritenga Whakaaro - New Zealand Doctor

Ngā Tukunga Iho o Ngā Hui – Hui Findings 4
It was also clear that ‘low cost’ is a relative term.
“They think you can afford it… with the community services card. [But] the medication might be
$30 and they only reduce it to $15. That’s still heaps of money.” (Auckland Rangatahi)
“Too many Māori deaf are very poor and they can’t afford [health care].” (Wellington)
A related financial factor influencing the decision to see a doctor or not was the lack of transportation.
Value
Many participants saw the GP visit as another burden associated with being ill, rather than as a tool to improve their
health. There was also a perceived lack of value in many GP visits due to, for example, the shortness of the visit, not
feeling any better as a result of visiting a GP, and the lack of willingness of the GP to discuss more than one health
issue. Some participants also felt that regular visits (e.g., in conjunction with medication refills) were of no benefit
to their health but merely a drain on their resources. All of these issues may also be linked with the communication
issue explored above; that is, patients may question the value of a GP visit because the doctor has not explained
things fully and understandably to them.
“[It] costs a mint to go to the family doctor for a two minute kōrero.” (East Cape)
“You’re paying big money and then you come out dissatisfied. You don’t mind paying that money
if you come out and you feel good. [But it’s different] if you have paid $30 or $40 and you don’t
feel as though they’ve helped you.” (Hawkes Bay Hauā)
“If you have an injury in your leg and something wrong with your ears too, they just want to know
about your leg. You’ve got to then come back later about your ear. You’re trying to explain that
you’ve got a sore ear, and they’re just trying to look at your leg. I like to go and get them all seen
to, my ear and my knee.” (Auckland Rangatahi)
There were also participants who believed that a Western doctor could not heal them and was therefore of little
value.
“Like all my family, they don’t go. They stay true to their old medicine. My auntie who I live with…
she’s really sick at the moment… She won’t go to the doctor because she doesn’t think the doctor
can give her anything for what she has. That’s how she is. That is how she was brought up. She
doesn’t need a doctor to fix her.” (Auckland Rangatahi)
Drawing attention to oneself
For some participants the ‘wait and see’ attitude described above stemmed from their feelings that it was
inappropriate to call attention to themselves or their individual needs.
“We don’t make a noise; it’s just not our way. We just sit there and just grin and bear it. It’s just
not our way to make a fuss, to formalise it, to challenge something. We will just sit there and bide
time, hoping that someone will realise we need help.” (Waikato)
Sometimes drawing attention to individual needs was seen as a waste of a doctor’s time because the health issue
was perceived by the participant to be only minor.
“I was thinking, ‘No, I’m not going in there wasting the doctor’s time.’ You know, this is only
a bite; that’s all it is. I can do it myself, which I did, until the end… I think a lot of us do this.
Eventually it healed, but it took four months.” (Christchurch)
He Ritenga Whakaaro: Māori experiences of health services | 47