Study finds racism a common complaint at hospitals

A report on rheumatic fever and heart disease among Māori and Pacific Island patients has revealed claims of racist attitudes and behaviour by New Zealand doctors and health workers.

According to the report, commissioned by the Ministry of Health and conducted by University of Auckland medical researchers, patients were referred to by derogatory names such as “coconut” and subjected to “endemic racism” in NZ hospitals.

A hospital paediatrician told the researchers that “you’d have to be deaf, daft and blind not to spot it [racism] on a regular basis in our particular hospitals”, the report says.