Dear Capital and Coast District Health Board,

As the Advocate of the deceased Samuel Jacob Fischer, I request:

Mr Fischer's complete CCDHB Electronic Health Record, from 31st January 2015 until the time of his death on 20th April 2015

1) I request this information be released to me in the "way I prefer" which is
a) a hard copy and
b) an electronic copy on USB media stick
c) for secure collection from the reception at the entrance to Wellington Hospital

2) To include all information that was in the electronic file during the period

3) to include all information that was in the electronic file, that was shared between any person, service, agency or other during the period

4) to include all completed or not completed procedural CCDHB client pathway documents that were in the electronic file during the period

5) to include all information that was in the electronic file during the period such as Psychiatrist/Responsible Clinician peer reviews, consultations, medical review records, advance directives and advance care planning information, medications prescribed, reports, assessments, risk management information, legal information, urine drug screen analysis and results, meeting records, memos, letters, notes, emails and draft documents, any personal information from Mr Fischer himself, and any other record that was on Mr Fischer's electronic file during the period

I understand that a decision on a request for information under the Offical Informations Act 1982 should be made within 20 working days of receiving that request. 

Yours faithfully,
Jak Wild
Advocate of the deceased
Samuel Jacob Fischer

Dear Robyn Fitzgerald [CCDHB],

Thank-you for the prompt response to my Official Information Act request.

Below is an email I was advised by the Privacy Commissioners Office to send alongside my earlier Official Information Act request. As detailed in the email, the electronic health record release was subject to Section 22F of the Health Act 1956, therefore should not have been omitted from the numerous times Mr Fischer's health record has been released since his death.

The result of this omission, is that the electronic health record has not been made available to formal investigations into Mr Fischer's death, including the Sudden Adverse Death Review, the Health and Disability Commissioners investigation, the Right to Life case, and the ongoing Coroners Hearing into Mr Fischer's death.

As the information I am requesting is readily available and on hand, being an electronic file, and that previous releases of the paper file (including the file released for the ongoing Coronial hearing) has required no third party redactions, can the release be made available within 14 days of the date it was requested last Friday 2nd Aug (i.e. before Friday 17th Aug.

Yours sincerely,

Jak Wild
Advocate and representative of the Deceased,
Samuel Jacob Fischer

cc, Hon Grant Robertson, Minister of Finance,

From: Jak Wild <[email address]>
Subject: re: Request for Mr Samuel Jacob Fischer's Electronic Health Record
Date: August 2, 2019 at 15:53:04 GMT+12
To: "Alison Masters [CCDHB]" <[email address]>
Cc: [email address], Dale La Hood <[email address]>, Grant Robertson <[email address]>, [email address]

Dear Ms Masters,

I write to you in my role as Advocate and representative of the late Mr Samuel Jacob Fischer.

Following advice I have received from the Privacy Commissioner’s Office, subject to Section 22F of the Health Act 1956, I request the Electronic Health Record of Mr Samuel Jacob Fisher to be released as detailed in the attached Official Information Act request.

Your records will indicate this information has been previously requested on several occasions, but to date has not been provided.

So that I can better prepare for upcoming investigations and Inquiry into Mr Fischer’s death, please provide this information within 14 days.

Yours Faithfully
Jak Wild
Advocate and representative of the Deceased,
Samuel Jacob Fischer

cc, Hon Grant Robertson, Minister of Finance,

Dear Robyn Fitzgerald [CCDHB],

Please forward an acknowledgement to Mr Nigel Fairley (General Manager, 3DHB Mental Health, Addictions and Intellectual Disability Services), for his 29.08.18 letter which I received the day of which was the deadline for his legislated obligation to respond, that being the 20th day after CCDHB received my Official Information Act request.

Until further notice, please refrain from any further attempt by CCDHB to email me directly in relation this OIA. Mr Fairley's emailing me directly, was an attempt to divert public scrutiny of CCDHB's legislated obligations.

For the purpose of transparency, can CCDHB re-consider future communications on any aspect of my OIA requests for information, and to confirm communications until further notice are solely via the fyi.org.nz website?

Additionally, for the purpose of specificity and accuracy, can CCDHB please re-conisder and confirm that from here on any response to each of the OIA's I currently have open to CCDHB, are specific and separate, so as not to confuse, misrepresent or divert attention from the obligations CCDHB has to each OIA currently requested?

In reference to the aforementioned response from Mr Fairley to OIA's currently requested. For reference purposes below, at the end of this communication, I have appended and inserted the paragraph from Mr Fairley's letter, which is specific to the Official Information Act request for a procedurally correct and legal obligation to release to me, Mr Fischer's Electronic Health Record.

For the record, Mr Fairley's response, specific to this OIA for release of Mr Ficher's Electronic Health Record, contained a number of factual errors and misrepresentations. Corrections are as follows:

1) Contrary to Mr Fairley's references to a "clinical file". The OIA request was not for a "clinical file", it was for Mr Fischer's complete Electronic Health Record". Please refrain from any further misrepresentation of this OIA request and confirm and rectify this misrepresentation.

2) Contrary to Mr Fairley's inferences that the purpose for the OIA request is for the ongoing coroners inquest into Mr Fischer's death. The OIA request makes no such reference as to the purpose of the request.

A previous request to Dr Masters pursuant to Section 22F of the Health Act 1956 which was referenced in this OIA, stated the request to Dr Masters was so that "I can better prepare for upcoming investigations and Inquiry into Mr Fischer’s death". Please refrain from any further misrepresentation of this OIA request and confirm and rectify this error.

3) In reference to Mr Fairley's statement "You have therefore been provided with access to all of the records that CCDHB holds relevant to the inquest".

This OIA request is NOT a request of "records that CCDHB holds relevant to the Inquest".

It is a perversion of justice for CCDHB to arbitrarily decide which documents are "relevant" to upcoming investigations and inquiry into Mr Fischer's death and to obstruct release of the complete Electronic Health Record.

As such, CCDHB are preventing other interested parties the legal right to review and decide on what they deem is relevant information pertinent to Mr Fischer's death. This is a breach of legislation as well as a breach CCDHB's Open Disclosure Policy following a controversial death in a CCDHB hospital.

Please refrain from any further misrepresentation of this OIA request and confirm there will be no further attempts to divert attention from CCDHB's obligations to release the information as requested, pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982.

In conclusion, I request, that in light of points 1-3 above CCDHB re-consider this Official Information Act request, based solely on what is factually requested, and not based on what Mr Fairley has misrepresented in his 29.08.19 letter in response to this OIA.

Please respond within 7 working days. If I do not receive a response to this matter I will raise a complaint with other investigatory agencies and proceed via other legal remedies.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Wild
Advocate of the Deceased
Samuel Jacob Fischer

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appended letter received by email on 29.08.19 from CCDHB. Text specific to OIA request for: ELECTRONIC FILE RECORD OF THE LATE SAMUEL JACOB FISCHER (CCDHB REFERENCE NUMBER: OIA request 2019-146)

"Dear Mr Wild,

........You have requested that Mr Fischer's complete CCDHB Electronic Health Record from 31 January to April 2019 be provided to you in hard copy and on an USB media stick.

We refer to Mr La Hood's email to the Coroner dated 7 August 2019 in which he reiterated that the clinical file was provided to you in 2015; and to Coroner Nagara in May 2015. Mr La Hood confirmed that the clinical file has been provided to the Coroner, and that there is nothing further to provide. Mr La Hood also confirmed in his email that, as previously acknowledged to the Coroner, the clinical files do not contain a complete record of all emails between CCDHB staff and you. Mr La Hood noted that you appear to have access to many of these emails, as you have referred to them during the inquest. In any event, he provided further disclosure of CCDHB staff emails with you over the period relevant to the inquest to the Coroner on 7 August 2019.

You have therefore been provided with access to all of the records that CCDHB holds relevant to the inquest. CCDHB refuses your further request for these records on the grounds that your request is vexatious......".

Regards,

Nigel Fairley,
MHAIDS

Dear Robyn Fitzgerald [CCDHB],

Further to this request for release of Samuel Jacob Fischer's Electronic Health Record.

Please forward an acknowledgement of correspondence received today 3.09.19 from Ms Iris Reuvecamp (Legal Counsel 3DHB Mental Health, Addictions and Intellectual Disability Services), who has now superseded Mr Nigel Fairley (General Manager, 3DHB Mental Health, Addictions and Intellectual Disability Services) in managing this request for release of Samuel Jacob Fischer's Electronic Health Record.

For the purpose of transparency and public disclosure, inserted below is the appended text from Ms Reuvecamp's 3.09.19 email that is specifically relevant to this OIA for release of Mr Fischer's Electronic Health Record.

Can CCDHB please confirm:
1) That "the email" Ms Reuvecamp refers to in her 3.09.19 email is the 30.08.19 email generated and sent from the fyi.org.nz website pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982, and not the 3.09.19 email sent by me directly to Ms Reuvecamp, pursuant to the Health Information Privacy Code 1994 Rule 6?

2) Whether CCDHB has made a legal determination that I have received Mr Fischer's Electronic Health Record pursuant to this Official Information Act 1982 request and not limited to a release the CCDHB deems "relevant to the ongoing coroners inquest"?

Please respond within 5 working days. If I do not receive a response to this matter I will raise a complaint with other investigatory agencies and proceed via other legal remedies.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Wild

_________________________________________________________________________________________
Appended letter received by email on 3.09.19 from CCDHB. Text specific to OIA request for: ELECTRONIC FILE RECORD OF THE LATE SAMUEL JACOB FISCHER (CCDHB DESIGNATED REFERENCE NUMBER: OIA request 2019-146)

"Dear Mr Wild,

In so far as the numbered points made in your email relating to “Electronic file record of the late Samuel Jacob Fischer” are concerned, we consider that we have appropriately responded to your requests. Our response therefore stands.

Kind regards

Iris Reuvecamp
Legal Counsel
MHAIDS 3DHB"

Dear Robyn Fitzgerald [CCDHB],

Please take notice.

Based on the Advice received from a Senior Advisor at the Privacy Commissioners Office I have prepared:

i) A complaint to the Privacy Commissioner's Office filed under urgency detailing CCDHB's failure to release Mr Fischer's electronic health record pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982.

ii) A complaint, which will be filled to the Ombudsman Office if I do not receive a prompt response (within 2 working days) which I deem a satisfactory response to correspondence sent to Ms Reuvecamp earlier today as follows:

1) Why in May 2015, two months after Mr Fischer’s death, did CCDHB acknowledge, accept, and designate my status as “Representative of the deceased" and duly release to me Mr Fischer’s health information within the provisions of the Privacy Act 1993, Health Information Privacy Code 1994, and/or Official Information Act 1982 in May 2015?

2) What circumstance are different now than in May 2015, which now leads CCDHB to determine I “no longer fall within the definition of representative”?

In light of the evidence I have provided, can CCDHB please acknowledge I have a lawful role as Representative of the deceased, pursuant to the Health Information Privacy Code 1994?

Yours sincerely,

Mr Wild

Dear Robyn Fitzgerald [CCDHB],

Further to this request for release of Samuel Jacob Fischer's Electronic Health Record.

Please forward an acknowledgement of correspondence received yesterday 12.09.19 from Ms Iris Reuvecamp (Legal Counsel 3DHB Mental Health, Addictions and Intellectual Disability Services), who is managing this request for release of Samuel Jacob Fischer's Electronic Health Record.

Ms Reuvecamp informed me that CCDHB's previous response to this OIA request addresses the issues raised.

Complaints to the Privacy Commissioner and Ombudsman Office are pending investigation of CCDHB's decision.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Wild

Dear Robyn Fitzgerald [CCDHB],

Thank-you for your reply today. I appreciate that you have now decided to make your replies via the fyi.org.nz website as this facilitates an open and transparent response to citizens OIA requests.

You have made an error in that your response to the OIA 'Audits of Wellington Hosptial's Te Whare o Matairngi' is done via the OIA webpage 'Electronic file record of the late Samuel Jacob Fischer'. The Electronic file record OIA was repeatedly denied by CCDHB and as previously informed, a complaint has been filed under urgency with the Privacy Commission, and a complaint is pending before the Ombudsman Office.

Can you please acknowledge your error and respond accordingly via the correct OIA fyi webpage here:
https://fyi.org.nz/request/11022-audits-...

Yours sincerely,

Mr Wild

Dear Robyn Fitzgerald [CCDHB]

As previously advised in the 12.09.19 email above there are complaints before statutory investigatory agencies to address the obstruction and inconsistencies in CCDHB's decision that is preventing the release of the late Samuel Jacob Fishcer's electronic health information, which are sought so as to assist enquiries and investigations into the duty of care Mr Fischer received prior to his death in Wellington Hospital.

You will have now received this same OIA request, but in an amended form. The request is now made formally in the name of Mr Fischer's mother Mrs Lyn Copland, whom I am acting on behalf of as a Support Person specifically for this request.

Communications will continue to be updated via this webpage to ensure transparency with this ongoing OIA request, to assist the public interest it is generating and to maximize the media attention that Mrs Copland is seeking.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Wild

Dear Robyn Fitzgerald [CCDHB],

The documentation to ensure this Official Information Act is acted upon have been sent via your medical records department.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Wild