Dr John Armstrong, of Rotorua, MNZM for services to Māori health
Dr John Armstrong retired in 2020 as Rotorua’s longest-serving general practitioner. He has used his commitment to te reo to help Māori patients become more comfortable engaging with the health system. He advocated for cultural sensitivity with Māori deaths, avoiding unnecessary post-mortems to return the body to the family as soon as possible. He has been active in suicide prevention, particularly of young Māori men, meeting with gang members and rugby league players to address their health and mental health concerns. He saw patients regardless of financial status, doing in-house and out-of-office calls. Following retirement, Dr Armstrong led education programmes for Māori to overcome vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic.