133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
25 March 2022
Luke
By email:
[FYI request #18459 email]
Ref:
H202203332
Dear Luke
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your follow up request under the Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act) on 28
February 2022 for information relating to COVID-19 and hospitalisations. Please find a
response to each part of your request below.
“Please explain why the Ministry of Health is unable to ascertain whether any hospital
patients are being treated for COVID-19 or not.
The Ministry is enhancing its reporting processes for those cases that have required hospital
level care. You may wish to contact the district health boards (DHBs) who do aggregate coding
data after discharge. Contact details for the DHBs are available at:
www.health.govt.nz/new-
zealand-health-system/key-health-sector-organisations-and-people/district-health-
boards/district-health-board-websites.
The Ministry continues to improve on its reporting of national hospitalisation data related to
COVID-19. In February, the Ministry began comprehensive reporting of all cases in hospital with
COVID-19 in the Northern region made up of the Northland DHB and the three Auckland metro
DHBs. It is planned to expand this approach to other DHBs during March.
Reason for admission is not routinely coded and provided to the Ministry. However, the Ministry
is working to provide this information based on discharge data.
You may also be interested in the following link which provides demographic details of cases
that have been hospitalised at:
www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-
and-statistics/covid-19-case-demographics.
Please also release all email correspondence that was generated as a result of
responding to this Information Request (Ref: H202201122).”
Please refer to the at ached email correspondence within the scope of your request. Duplicate
information has been identified and removed accordingly. Please note that some information
has been withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the Act, to protect the privacy of natural persons and
section 9(2)(k) to prevent the disclosure or use of official information for improper gain or
improper advantage.
Under section 28(3) of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review any
decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may be contacted by email at:
[email address] or by calling 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Jan Torres
Manager, OIA Services
Office of the Director-General
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