Public funding for pregnancy counselling

Julie Fairey made this Official Information Act request to Ministry of Health

The request was successful.

From: Julie Fairey

21 May 2012

Dear Ministry of Health,

I am requesting details of funding going to pregnancy counselling
services from Vote Health from 2008 to the current day. I am
requesting the amounts and also the names of any external agencies
the funding was paid to for provision of pregnancy counselling
services.

Please provide this information to me by email at your earliest
convenience.

Thank you in advance for your help with this matter.

Yours faithfully,
Julie Fairey

Link to this

Ministry of Health

24 May 2012

Dear Ms Fairey

Thank you for your request for official information, received by the
Ministry of Health on 22 May 2012.

Your request has been received and logged.  As required under the Official
Information Act 1982, the Ministry will respond to your request within 20
working days.  You should receive a response on or before 20 June 2012.

If a large amount of information has been requested or if the Ministry
needs to consult in order to make a decision, we may need to extend this
date (this is provided for in Section 15A of the Act).  We will advise you
if such an extension is necessary.

The Ministry's reference number for your request is: H201201778

Yours sincerely
 
Government Relations
Corporate Services
Ministry of Health
[1]mailto:[email address]

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Link to this

Ministry of Health

17 June 2012

Dear Ms Fairey

Thank you for your official information request, received by the Ministry
of Health on 22 May 2012.

You requested:

* "details of funding going to pregnancy counselling services from Vote
Health from 2008 to the current day. [You are] requesting the amounts
and also the names of any external agencies the funding was paid to
for provision of pregnancy counselling services."

Access to counselling and social support following adverse maternity
outcomes are part of the national minimum range of maternity service that
District Health Boards (DHBs) are required to fund under service coverage
requirements.   The full service coverage schedule to the DHB Crown
Funding Agreement is available on the nationwide service framework library
website [1]http://www.nsfl.health.govt.nz/

As with most service coverage requirements, decisions about offering
particular services or treatment on a publicly funded basis are determined
clinically by DHBs according to an assessment of each individual’s
specific clinical and social circumstances.  DHBs are funded through
population based funding for these services and the Ministry does not
routinely track service funding at the requested level of detail.  Your
request is therefore refused under section 18(f) of the Official
Information Act because the Ministry of Health does not hold the
information itself, and the information cannot be provided without
substantial collation and research.  However you could consider contacting
each DHB individually for this information.

In deciding to refuse your request the Ministry has considered whether
fixing a charge or extending the time limit to respond would enable the
request to be granted, and has subsequently determined that it would not.
 The Ministry also does not consider that consultation with you would
assist you to make the request in a form that would remove the reason for
the refusal.

You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my
decision on this request.

Yours sincerely

Callum Sutherland
Senior Analyst
Government Relations
Corporate Services

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.nsfl.health.govt.nz/

Link to this

Julie Fairey left an annotation ( 5 July 2012)

I have now made a request to my local DHB (Auckland DHB) via the contact form on their website. I will see how this pans out as to whether or not to expand it to other DHBs.

Link to this

Julie Fairey left an annotation (30 July 2012)

Haven't even had an acknowledgement from ADHB by using their contact form on their website so have re-sent it today.

Link to this

Julie Fairey left an annotation ( 3 August 2012)

Rang ADHB today to query what was happening. They have repaired a response which is awaiting the CEO's signature before sending to me either later today or on Monday. This appears to be to the 5th July request (have asked them to ignore the 30th July one as they are the same).

They have also recommended that future OIA requests go directly to the CEO via the email address ceo@adhb.govt.nz Hope this is helpful to others.

Link to this

Julie Fairey left an annotation ( 9 August 2012)

The response did not turn up as promised, and has still not arrived (or indeed even an acknowledgement) so I have emailed the CEO address, as above, to remind them and warn that I will complain to the Ombudsman if I have not had a response by close of business tomorrow (Friday).

Link to this

Julie Fairey left an annotation (13 August 2012)

Have now received a response from ADHB, outlining (roughly) that the pregnancy counselling services form part of a broader contract with Youthline, and also with Epsom Day Unit. ADHB also part-fund (0.2) a Clinical Psychologist position to assist with women's health needs in general.

This resolves my query to ADHB.

Link to this

Things to do with this request

Anyone:
Ministry of Health only: