Accelerated axing of Maori health blindsides campaigners

[C_T_Russell]

Except, that now all those patients will transfer to the mainstream over burdened clinics and hospitals.
And those costs you mention will be at the expense of the already under funded mainstream.
Seems a very silly move considering the stress the health system is already under.

Unless of course it really was just about politics.

Transfer from where? We don't have maori hospitals as far as I'm aware and I don't think any maori health clinics were even rolled out yet under the new authority.
What did happen though was that waiting list preference had to take your ethnicity into account, so you could potentially jump the queue if you were maori, lots of doctors were unhappy about it and were speaking out on how unfair it was.