Dear Capital and Coast District Health Board,

I write to you in my role as the Advocate of the late Samuel Jacob Fischer who was a patient of Te Whare o Matairangi psychiatric inpatient facility (TWOM) between January 31st 2015 to the time of his discharge to the Wellington Hosptial's Intensive Care Unit where he died on the 20th April 2015.

Under the provisions of the Official Information Act 1982, I request the following training records:

1) Details of the training programs, modules, courses, competencies or other professional development provisions specific to SUICIDALITY, SUICIDE, and/or RISK MANAGEMENT, limited to staff who were clinically responsible for the late Mr Fischer during his TWOM admission between 31st January 2015 and 17th April 2015.

2) Details of the dates that clinically responsible staff completed such training as detailed in point 1 above, and details and dates of when any further training was required of said staff.

This information should be easily available and on hand and was referred to as being available by the CCDHB's lawyer at the ongoing Coronial Inquest into Mr Fischer's death.

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],

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 to this Official Information Act (OIA) request, that being the 20th day after CCDHB received my request.

Please refer to concerns noted in my latest communications regarding the OIA request for release of Mr Fischer's Electronic Health Record. I request that the same consideration be given with processing this OIA request, (i.e. greater transparency in communications from CCDHB by asking communications go via this fyi.org.nz website, and asking for responses to each OIA being specific and separate to prevent confusion, misrepresentation or diversion)

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 this OIA request for; 'Te Whare o Matairangi staff training records'

CCDHB's contention for reasons not to release the requested information is stated in Mr Fairley's letter as being due to "the wide range of health professionals that were clinically responsible for Mr Fischer's care" and that "this is simply not feasible, and we therefore refuse this request on the grounds that the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation and research"

By way of acknowledgement of CCDHB's contention for reasons not to release the requested information, please re-consider a significantly limited amount of information to be released. That being records solely related to the small number of staff who have appeared as witnesses on behalf of CCDHB in the coroner's court in relation to the death of Mr Fischer.

By way of acknowledgement of CCDHB's contention that "even if the request was limited in scope, we would need to consider the privacy interests of individual staff". Please re-consider a release of the information requested, based on the protections in place with the coroners non-disclosure order which I am bound by.

The information is sought to aid investigation and inquiry into Mr Fischer's death as well as in the pubic interest, due to evidence presented in the coroners court which indicates staff were not sufficiently competent in matters specific to suicidality, suicide, and risk management.

Please respond within the legislated obligations pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Wild
Advocate of the Deceased
Samuel Jacob Fischer
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Appended letter received by email on 29.08.19 from CCDHB. Text specific to OIA request for:
'Request for Te Whare o Matairangi staff training records'
OIA request 2019-153 (CCDHB designated reference number).

Dear Mr Wild....

By email dated 8 August 2019, you requested:

1) Details of the training programs, modules, courses, competencies or other professional development provisions specific to SUICIDALITY, SUICIDE, and/or RISK MANAGEMENT, limited to staff who were clinically responsible for the late Mr Fischer during his TWOM admission between 31st January 2015 and 17th April 2015.

2} Details ofthe dates that clinically responsible staff completed such training as detailed in point 1 above, and details and dates of when any further training was required of said staff.

We note that a wide range of health professionals were clinically responsible for Mr Fischer's care during his TWOM admission between 31st January 2015 and 17th April 2015. Responding to your request would require us to review the records over this period, and identifying which staff were involved in Mr Fisch er' s care over the course of three shifts for each day of Mr Fischer's admission. This is simply not feasible, and we therefore refuse this request on the grounds that the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation and research. In doing so, we have
considered whether fixing the charge or extending the time limit would enable the request to be granted, but do not believe that it would. We also note that, even if the request was limited in scope, we would need to consider the privacy interests of individual staff...

regards
Nigel Fairley
MHAIDS

Dear Robyn Fitzgerald [CCDHB],

Further to this request for release of 'Request for Te Whare o Matairangi staff training records'
for the purpose of transparency I reference the latest response from CCDHB to this OIA request.

Please forward an acknowledgement of correspondence received 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 OIA request.

In follow up to the release of staff training records which the CCDHB had refused as detailed in previous correspondence, I refined my initial request to address CCDHB's grounds for refusal. This was by limiting the number of staff to those before the coroner court, addressing the privacy concerns based on the protections in place with the coroners current non-disclosure orders which I am bound by, and limiting the time frame of records requested , so by addressing each of CCDHB's objections.

Ms Reuvecamps 3.09.19 response to my refined request was:
We will consider this request and will respond within 20 working days.

I will await the release of the requested information subject to the provisions of the Officia Information Act 1982.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Wild