A government-wide directive which makes it harder to target services based on ethnicity is “unscientific and dangerous”, a group of researchers say. The Cabinet Office issued a circular, or formal notice, earlier this month which said it was the Government ’s expectation that public services should be prioritised “ on the basis of need, not race ”. The coalition parties also said they were concerned about agencies using ethnic identity “as a proxy for need, and therefore a justification in itself for targeted services”.
A New Zealand Medical Journal editorial published today in the name of six public health academics said the directive was “an affront to scientific and public health knowledge” and “requires explicit rejection” from health professionals and scientists. Lead author Dr Belinda Loring, a public health physician at the University of Auckland, said ethnicity was an evidence-based marker of need within the health system..
