Thyroid guidelines/policies, citation lists, monitoring and thyroid statistics
Belinda Hodson made this Official Information request to Ministry of Health
The request was partially successful.
      From: Belinda Hodson
      
    
    Dear Ministry of Health,
As at 31st March, please provide:
1. Guidelines and/or policy on thyroid diagnosis, testing and treatment issued/used/supported by the Ministry of Health; plus
a) The citation list (clinical research studies, other clinical papers and publications including randomised control trials and guidelines) that support these guidelines/policy. Citations are to include those on safety, benefits, efficacy, risk, and risk management; and
b). The citation list of all patient survey data that supports these guidelines/policy.
2. From the period 1 January 1990 through to 31 March 2019, all studies carried out by the Ministry of Health, referred to or sourced by the Ministry of Health (NZ or international studies) that:
a) Monitor the impact of https://bpac.org.nz/ and https://www.racp.edu.au/ guidelines/policies on thyroid diagnosis, testing and treatment on the health and well-being of NZ thyroid patients; and
b) All studies examining thyroid patients’ experience of diagnosis and treatment.
3. The Ministry of Health’s rationale to exclude statistics on thyroid disease from its website at: https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta.... NZ’s population of thyroid patients has been steadily rising since 2010 and the number of patients on funded medications was 109,252 as at 31 March 2017 as recorded by the Ministry of Health. This is before >10,000 patients are added to this total (data captured from another source). Or, if data and statistics are on the website, please advise where on the Ministry’s website this data can be viewed.
Yours faithfully,
Belinda Hodson
        Ministry of Health
      
    
    Kia ora Belinda
Thank you for your request for official information received by the
 Ministry of Health.
You can expect a response as soon as reasonably practicable.
Nga mihi
OIA Services
 Government Services
 Office of the Director-General
 Ministry of Health
 E: [email address]
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        Ministry of Health
      
    
    Kia ora Ms Hodson
Please find attached a letter regarding your request for official
 information.
Nga mihi
Catherine Simpson
OIA Services
 Government Services
 Office of the Director-General
 Ministry of Health
 E: [email address]
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 attachments may contain information that is IN-CONFIDENCE and subject to
 legal privilege.
 If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate,
 distribute or copy this message or attachments.
 If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender
 immediately and delete this message.
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      From: Belinda Hodson
      
    
    Dear Ministry of Health,
Hi Catherine.
Thank your for your response and I will follow this up with the DHBs and Health Research Council as you have suggested. With respect to question 3 in my OIA:
"3. The Ministry of Health's rationale to exclude statistics on thyroid disease from its
website at: https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta....
NZ's population of thyroid patients has been steadily rising since 2010 and the number
of patients on funded medications was 109,252 as at 31 March 2017 as recorded by the
Ministry of Health. This is before >10,000 patients are added to this total (data captured
from another source). Or, if data and statistics are on the website, please advise where
on the Ministry's website this data can be viewed."
I have searched the Ministry of Health's website using the search codes you suggested and cannot find anywhere on the website where the 109,252 thyroid patients on PHARMAC funded thyroid medications are recorded. Unless I am still looking in the wrong place, and please let me know if I am as I will look again; what is the Ministry of Health's rationale to exclude statistics on thyroid disease from its
website at: https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta...   
If you could advise, that would be appreciated.
Yours faithfully,
Belinda Hodson
        Ministry of Health
      
    
    Kia Ora Ms Hodson,
The number of people dispensed PHARMAC subsidised community dispensed
 thyroid pharmaceuticals was provided to you under the Official Information
 Act Ref: H201703321. That information came from the Ministry of Health
 Pharmaceutical Collection.
Data is publicly available to download from DataPharm:
 [1]https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/d...
More information on the Pharmaceutical Collect can be found here:
 [2]https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta...
For further information about this collection or to request specific
 datasets or reports email [3][email address]
Kind regards
Catherine Simpson
OIA Services
 Government Services
 Office of the Director-General
 Ministry of Health
 E: [email address]
From:        "Belinda Hodson"
 <[FOI #10857 email]>
 To:        "OIA/LGOIMA requests at Ministry of Health"
 <[Ministry of Health request email]>,
 Date:        08/09/2019 03:44 p.m.
 Subject:        Re: Response to your request for information, Ref:
 H201907018
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Dear Ministry of Health,
Hi Catherine.
Thank your for your response and I will follow this up with the DHBs and
 Health Research Council as you have suggested. With respect to question 3
 in my OIA:  
"3. The Ministry of Health's rationale to exclude statistics on thyroid
 disease from its
 website at:
 [4]https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta....
 NZ's population of thyroid patients has been steadily rising since 2010
 and the number
 of patients on funded medications was 109,252 as at 31 March 2017 as
 recorded by the
 Ministry of Health. This is before >10,000 patients are added to this
 total (data captured
 from another source). Or, if data and statistics are on the website,
 please advise where
 on the Ministry's website this data can be viewed."
I have searched the Ministry of Health's website using the search codes
 you suggested and cannot find anywhere on the website where the 109,252
 thyroid patients on PHARMAC funded thyroid medications are recorded.
 Unless I am still looking in the wrong place, and please let me know if I
 am as I will look again; what is the Ministry of Health's rationale to
 exclude statistics on thyroid disease from its
 website at:
 [5]https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-sta...
  
If you could advise, that would be appreciated.
Yours faithfully,
 Belinda Hodson
-----Original Message-----
Kia ora Ms Hodson
Please find attached a letter regarding your request for official
 information.
Nga mihi
Catherine Simpson
OIA Services
 Government Services
 Office of the Director-General
 Ministry of Health
 E: [email address]
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 Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
 [FOI #10857 email]
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 Statement of confidentiality: This e-mail message and any accompanying
 attachments may contain information that is IN-CONFIDENCE and subject to
 legal privilege.
 If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate,
 distribute or copy this message or attachments.
 If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender
 immediately and delete this message.
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