Dear Mr Kevin Allan, Mental Health Commissioner,

I, Lyn Copland, mother of the late Samuel Jacob Fischer, and I, Jak Wild, Advocate and Representative of the late Samuel Jacob Fischer, request pursuant to the the Official Information Act 1982, and/or the Health Act 1956 Section 22F and/or the Health Information Privacy Code Rule 6 request:

1) All health information that was provided to your office in electronic form for the purpose of your reporting into Case15HDC00864, complaint about services provided to Samuel by CCCDHB:

2) To include information received from the:
a) NZ Police
b) Ministry of Health
c) Sudden Adverse Event Review Group who undertook a 2015 post death review into
Mr Fischer's treatment and care
d) Capital and Coast District Health Board
e) Hutt Valley District Health Board
f) Independent Psychiatry Advisor, Dr Eleni Nikolau
g) Independent Mental Health Nursing Advisor, Dr Tony Farrow

3) I request the information to be released in electronic form on USB media stick for secure collection from the reception of the Wellington, Victoria St, HDC office.

4) As the information requested is information solely in electronic form, is readily available and on hand, and will already have had all necessary third party redactions by those providing the information to HDC, please consider a release at the very earliest.

5) Urgency is requested to assist matters of high public interest and to assist in ongoing lines of enquiry that include statutory, criminal, civil and media investigations into Samuel's death.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Lyn Copland
Mother of the late Samuel Jacob Fischer

Mr Jak Wild
Advocate and Representative of the late Samuel Jacob Fischer

Dear Health and Disability Commissioner,

Please explain why you have failed in your obligations to respond to this information request within the legislated period of 20 working days.

This indicates a complete lack of respect to the family and other support persons who are attempting to bring to light the inadequacies of investigations into Mr Fischer's death.

It is unacceptable for an investigatory agency such as the HDC to flout the law.

This sets a very poor example to state service organizations such as District Health Boards that you have a legislated responsibility to investigate.

I await an explanation.

Yours Sincerely

Mr Wild

Dear Health and Disability Commissioner,

For the record, I reminded you via this website last week that you are in breach of your Official Information Act obligations in not responding within the 20 day legislated period.

Yesterday, I emailed your office directly to the main HDC email but still did not receive a response.

I called your office this morning. It was 20 minutes after making my call that I was put through to Mr Craig Goodwillie (HDC Official Information Act Advisor).

Mr Goodwillie inferred he was unaware of this request and informed me he would respond accordingly.

I await a response at the very earliest.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Wild

Below is the latest correspondence from/to Mr Craig Goodwillie (HDC OIA Advisor)

By email:

Tena koe Ms Copland

Re: Your information request of 13 September 2019 Our ref: C1SHDC00864

Thank you for your and Mr Wild's email of 13 September 2019 requesting "All health information that was provided to [this] office in electronic form for the purpose of your reporting into Case15HDC00864".

We are currently considering your request under the Official Information Act 1982 and the Privacy Act 1993. There are two boxes containing 11 large files pertaining to complaint 15HDC00864. While we appreciate your request is for information in electronic form, we need to search through the hard copy files to ensure all health information you have requested is held in electronic form. Accordingly, we require an extension to respond to your request, as the request necessitates a search through a large quantity of information, and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the Health and Disability Commissioner. We anticipate that your request will be processed by 22 November 2019.

For the avoidance of doubt, this extension is made pursuant to section 15A of the Official Information Act and section 41 of the Privacy Act, and extends the time limits specified in sections 14 and 15 of the Official Information Act and sections 39 and 40 of the Privacy Act.

You may seek a review of this decision from the Office of the Ombudsman or the Privacy Commissioner.

We apologise for any inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. Naku iti noa, na

Lydia Wadsworth
Senior Legal Advisor

CC: Jak Wild (By email: [email address])

--------------------------------------------------------
From: Jak Wild <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Information Request
Date: October 16, 2019 at 12:57:20 GMT+13
To: Craig Goodwillie <[email address]>
Cc: [email address]

Dear Mr Goodwillie,

Thank-you for this update, for your apology and for the clarification in your communication.

I am concerned that the HDC or Ombudsman Office may at a later time refuse to release the electronic information on the grounds that it is determined the request “necessitates a search through a large quantity of information, and…would interfere with the operations of the Health and Disability Commissioner”. For this reason can there be a release under urgency of the “two boxes containing 11 files pertaining to complaint 15HDC00864”?

But not withstanding that HDC continue to determine, within the 22.11.15 extended deadline, which documents were provided to HDC in electronic form.

regards
Mr Jak Wild
pp Mrs Lyn Copland