A cancer researcher, she said on average Māori died seven years earlier than non Māori, the cancer rate was 20 per cent higher and the death rate was twice as high.
It was a running joke how Palmerston North Hospital was a Ngāti Kauwhata hospital because there were so many whānau members there.
Anti-racist practices needed to be implemented in the health system to improve Māori health, because Māori had consistently high levels of deprivation, she said.
“For every day there is inaction, for every day there is no redress, it becomes harder for the deprivation points to move.