Disabled people die from treatable conditions at five times the rate of non-disabled people, according to a major new report examining disabled people’s experiences of health care in Aotearoa New Zealand. The report, A Window on Disability was published by Health Quality & Safety Commission Te Tāhū Hauora in partnership with the Donald Beasley Institute and Nicholson Consulting.
Researchers worked alongside disabled people and their communities and analysed national data with the goal of building a picture of how disabled people experience the health system. The report found disabled people experience poorer access to and quality of health care throughout life. It also found tāngata whaikaha Māori die from treatable conditions at nearly 10 times the rate of non-Māori, non-Pacific non-disabled people. Much of the data used in the report had not previously been analysed in relation to disabled people’s health outcomes.
To help close these gaps, the report recommends four main actions: collecting better information about disabled people’s experiences of health care, giving health workers a better understanding of disability, employing more disabled people across the health system, and involving disabled people more directly in decisions about how health services are designed and run.
