Letters: All Blacks underdogs in win over Ireland; meddling in medicine and doctor selection

Meddling in medical school selection Our medical schools have practised race-based selections for upwards of three-quarters of a century with negligible real impact on the representation of Māori in the workforce. As it happens, the present intention of medical school intakes to “mirror society” is parochial and mistaken. Medicine is an international profession, with doctors being regularly recruited from overseas and with critical points of comparison across countries.

The manipulation of admissions is also inconsistent because it ignores gender, and women now make up almost two-thirds of the students in health professional programmes at Otago University . If having a Māori doctor really does produce better health outcomes for Māori patients, then presumably having male doctors for male patients should positively impact on their medical conditions and on the shorter lives of men..