A Maori health leader says warnings about non-clinical health workers administering the Covid-19 vaccine in Maori communities are unfounded.

The Nurses Organisation says a plan to train up health workers to plug the shortage of Maori nurses and doctors involved in the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out exposes decades of underinvestment in Maori health, and it argues that the workers won’t have the medical training to rely on if something goes wrong, even if they are well versed in giving the jabs.

Tia Ashby is the Ngapuhi Covid-19 Strategy and Response lead.