23 July 2019
Jan MacPherosn
[FYI request #10679 email]
Tēnā koe Jan
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-000495
Thank you for your request of 5 July 2019, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Please advise the number of treatment injury claims lodged for blood clots or cardiac infarction
caused by the prescribing of aspirin and NSAIDS simultaneously
Background information about treatment injury data
Before responding to your request, we would first like to provide you with some background
information about treatment injuries.
ACC has provided cover for treatment injuries since 1 July 2005. The treatment injury provision replaced
the medical misadventure provisions of the Accident Compensation Act 2001, to bring it more in line
with the no-fault nature of the scheme.
A treatment injury is a personal injury caused as a result of seeking or receiving medical treatment from
a registered health professional. In order to fulfil the criteria for cover, the person must have suffered a
personal injury and there must be a clear causal link between the treatment and the injury, and the
injury must not be a necessary part or ordinary consequence of the treatment.
When considering treatment injury data, it is important to note that the number of claims lodged with
ACC cannot be taken as an accurate indication of all the occurrences of injury during treatment or the
quality of care. This is because, among other reasons, not al occurrences of injury during treatment are
lodged with ACC.
Notes about the data extracted
To extract the data provided, we identified claims where there was a specific medical event (blood clot
or cardiac infarction) and medication names were recorded (aspirin in conjunction with celecoxib,
diclofenac, ibuprofen, indomethacin or naproxen).
This method of identifying claims is limited to claims where the medication(s) have been reported on
the claim record. We are unable to comment on claims where the medication is missing or recorded as
‘unknown’.
A prescription is not required to obtain aspirin or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID)
Aspirin and other NSAID medications can be bought over the counter without a prescription. Therefore,
there may be blood clot or cardiac infarction injuries resulting from the simultaneous use of these
medications, but they are not captured in ACC’s data. These instances are not captured because an ACC
treatment injury must be a result of seeking or receiving medical treatment from a registered health
professional (i.e. the medications must be prescribed by a doctor, for example).
ACC takes privacy seriously
ACC does not routinely disclose low value numbers. Accordingly, some data provided only indicates that
the relevant claims count was fewer than four. This limits the potential for particular individuals or
matters specific to certain individuals from being identified. Withholding in this way is necessary to
protect the privacy of these individuals under section 9(2)(a) of the Act.
GOV-000495
In doing so, we have considered the public interest in making the information available and have
determined that it does not outweigh the need to protect the privacy of these persons.
Treatment injury claims for blood clots or cardiac infarction caused by aspirin and NSAID medication
ACC has no record of any treatment injury claims being lodged for bloods clots or cardiac infarction,
caused by the prescribing of aspirin and NSAID medications simultaneously, between 1 July 2005 and
12 July 2019.
However, ACC has accepted five treatment injury claims (for other injuries) attributed to the use of
aspirin and other NSAID medication(s) simultaneously. Less than four of these five accepted claims had
other medication types listed as being associated with the resulting injury. Therefore, it is not certain
the injury related specifical y to the simultaneous use of aspirin and another NSAID. For example, an
al ergic reaction where it was not certain which of the recorded medications caused the reaction.
This data was extracted on 15 July 2019 and may differ if re-run at a later date.
ACC is happy to answer your questions
If you have any questions, you can email me at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800
802 602.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Emma Coats
Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement & Support
Accident Compensation Corporation
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