16 April 2020 
 
 
Ms Van Wey Lovatt 
Email - [FYI request #12509 email]  
 
 
Dear Ms Van Wey Lovatt 
 
Official Information Act (OIA) Request IA Y20-568 
MDHB's best practice protocol for archiving, storage, or 
biobanking of human tissue for diagnostic purposes 
 
Your Official Information Act request on 22 March 2020 is 
acknowledged and was passed on to me for a response. 
 
You have made the following four requests: 
 
1.  MDHB's best practice protocol for archiving, storage, or biobanking 
of human tissue for diagnostic purposes, whether they are formalin 
fixed, paraffin embedded or pathology slides, and the standards, 
legislation or scientific evidence which provides the basis for MDHB's 
protocol  
 
2.  Is MDHB protocol for archiving, storage, or biobanking of human 
tissue for diagnostic purposes, whether they are formalin fixed, 
paraffin embedded or pathology slides, based on a universally 
adopted standard within NZ or has MDHB determined its own policy  
 
3.  Potential hazards of leaving formalin fixed, paraffin embedded or 
pathology slides in an unsecure, non-temperature and non-humidity 
regulated environment for 2 months over a NZ summer: say a on an 
employee's desk which is open to the public and in a repurposed 
house adjacent to the hospital from mid-December to late February 
  
4.  Name of the independent agency or agencies which provides 
oversight for your medical laboratory 
 
Your request is refused under section 18 (e) of the Official Information 
Act 1982 as the information requested does not exist.  
 
This service is contracted by MidCentral District Health Board to Medlab 
Central Limited. We are therefore unable to provide the information 
requested. 
 
Strategy, Planning & Performance 
MidCentral District Health Board, PO Box 2056, Palmerston North.  Phone:  06 350 8928   Fax:  06 350 8926 
 

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You have the right to seek an investigation and review of our decision by 
the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman’s Office can be contacted on 0800 
802 602 or on-line at http://www.ombudsman.parlaiment.nz/ 
 
Please note that this response, or an edited version of this response, may 
be published on the MidCentral DHB website ten working days after 
your receipt of this response. 
 
 
Yours sincerely 
 
 
 
 
 
Craig Johnston 
General Manager Strategy, Planning and Performance 
Strategy, Planning & Performance 
MidCentral District Health Board, PO Box 2056, Palmerston North.  Phone:  06 350 8928   Fax:  06 350 8926 
 

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