Mahitahi Hauora (Te Kaupapa Mahitahi Hauora – Papa o te Raki Trust) is Northland’s largest primary health organisation. We work to achieve equity and improve outcomes for whānau and communities across Tai Tokerau.

Our vision

A 2026 Northland healthcare system that sustains equitable, self-determined wellbeing for the people of Northland.

Our mission

We work with others to find solutions to complex challenges by focusing on the needs of whānau and communities to achieve equity.

Our equity statement

We focus on making a positive difference for whānau and communities by giving action to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and challenging ourselves and others to achieve equity and improve outcomes across Tai Tokerau.

Read more about our commitment to equity.

Our pou

Our pou support our vision and guide all we do:

• Northlanders access services that enable whānau and communities to thrive. 
• Northlanders receive care that matters to them.
• Northlanders experience seamless service provision.
• Northlanders have confidence that resources are used appropriately and sustainably. 

Our approach

Equity-driven, whānau-centred

As Northland’s biggest PHO, and the one that serves a high proportion of Māori, rural, and high-needs patients, Mahitahi Hauora is committed to achieving equity and improving outcomes for whānau and communities in Tai Tokerau. That means doing things differently.

Despite everyone’s best efforts, the system we work in creates silos and constraints that hamper efforts towards equity.

We know healthcare providers and funders can’t achieve equity alone. Health and wellbeing depend on many factors: income, job status, housing, education, social support, environment, behaviours, and access to care. Population health improvement and equity require coordinated local effort and aligned activities, priorities and service delivery across sectors.

We need a new way of working that can effectively address the determinants of health with an integrated approach to health and social care planning that is driven by the needs of our whānau and communities.

Supporting general practice to achieve equity

We have a single contract with our general practices – the Equity for Whānau Agreement. It’s a high-trust, high-accountability partnership that sets clear expectations for practices to prioritise equity in three key areas:

• Access to services
• Clinical delivery
• Experience of care

The agreement offers practices flexibility in how they achieve these accountabilities by asking them to develop an annual plan tailored to the equity needs of their unique enrolled population.

Practices need only buy the services they need from us to deliver on their plan, offering greater choice and better value than ever before.

Find out more about our support services packages for general practices.

Enabling networks

We need to look beyond our traditional remits and bridge the gaps in health and social care by forming networks across Tai Tokerau.

Collaboration works. We’ve already seen the results we can achieve by working together in our COVID-19 Clinical Hub, the healthy food initiative Kai Ora Fund, and the new youth mental health service He Kakano Ahau.

Mahitahi Hauora has the skills, experience and many of the key relationships needed to expand collaborative working. We’re supporting and enabling networks by creating the infrastructure needed to make it easier for stakeholders across the health and social sectors to work in integrated ways.

A virtual clinical team

We’re looking at ways to expand our successful Clinical Hub to provide a sustainable virtual primary care clinical team accessible across Tai Tokerau.

Originally established to help manage the Omicron outbreak, the Clinical Hub has been acknowledged as making a big difference to whānau and general practice and playing a key role in reducing hospital admissions among people with COVID-19.

We see potential to adapt this valuable resource for other contexts to improve access to care and care delivery across the rohe. 

Data-driven support

Analysing network data collectively to share understanding and context is a key part of improving patient and whānau outcomes and experiences.

Mahitahi Hauora offers expert data analysis to support our partners to design effective, responsive services and measure progress towards objectives.