Disabled people | tāngata whaikaha are frequent users of health services, yet explicit and implicit biases toward disability in health systems remain pervasive. Disabled people continue to experience significant inequities in health outcomes, which in turn exacerbate the barriers they face to experiencing ordinary life outcomes.
Gaining a better understanding of the experiences of disabled people | tāngata whaikaha in the health system, particularly when things have gone wrong, can improve our understanding of what is important to disabled people and their whānau or family.
This report presents insights from complaints made to the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) from 2023 to 2025 about the experiences of disabled people | tāngata whaikaha when using health services. The themes in this report can help identify where health systems can better support the rights of disabled people to be upheld.”
HDC have made a series of recommendations in this respect.