Lay summary
Findings from our HRC Activation Grant (20/1311) exploring refugees' experiences of accessing healthcare services in Aotearoa, highlighted concerns for refugees. These included communication difficulties both linguistic and cultural, which reduced their ability to trust and engage with their clincian/s. The New Zealand Health System made little sense to our participants as they believed they got better before n appointment as there was such a long waiting time for appointments. Our participants shared sage advice for New Zealand clinicians and we want to research this further by engaging with health professionals to establish their experience and educational needs for supporting refugees arriving in Aotearoa. We plan to complete a number of interviews in Dunedin and Wellington to develop a national survey for health professionals to engage with and use the analysed data to develop potential training/ options for heath clinicians in collaboration with Aotearoa Refugee and Migrant Support Services.