Dear Ministry of Health,

Could you please provide a data set in Excel or csv file with the following columns - for the last 5 years by month to the end of March 2020 for the whole of New Zealand.

Column 1 to 5
- Residential Facility Name
- Level of Care (E.g. Rest Home, Dementia, Hospital Level)
- Physical Address
- Geocoded Location - NZTM
- DHB within which the Residential Care Facility resides
Column 6 - Number of Residents at the Start of the Period
Column 7 - Deaths During Period - whether the person died in the facility or in another facility (such as a public hospital)
Column 8 - Age Group at Death (in 10 year bands)

I would expect that these numbers are available from the MoH's payment system for residential care, or a national dataset collated from DHB systems. Residents should be able to be counted and tracked via their NHI number (which records their date of death and age at death).

If there are any commercial or privacy issues with the above dataset then please discuss. There may be ways that you can communicate:
A - the % Death Rate per Facility (Column 7 / Column 6)
B - wider Age Groups (e.g. 10 year bands to 90 then everyone above 90)
C - Hide the Facility Name

I would prefer the raw data though so please consult early so that we can agree and the MoH can meet the OIA timeline.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Johnston

Dear Ministry of Health,

I note that you have delayed the response until 3 June 2020.

i have a couple of questions about this decision and how the MoH is approaching this OIA. In the meantime I will refer this to the Ombudsman.

1) Clarity over which OIAs
There was correspondence under the following OIA from the MoH.
https://fyi.org.nz/request/12582-number-...
Are the MoH now intending to respond separately to this OIA?
Is the ref number for this OIA now H202002080 as quoted in the other OIA?
Is the MSD now responding separately as originally requested?

2) I am unclear what collation and consultation is required. It is a simple data extract from your systems.

3) Amount of delay - why does it take over 3 weeks extra?

This seems to be an excessive time frame for a data set extract - even if some obfuscation is required.

4) Priority given to this OIA given the importance and significant economic and health decisions being made.

There is evidence from the Department of Internal Affairs OIA from the Deaths Register below that there were a significant number of additional deaths in New Zealand during February 2020 and probably March 2020 (although March deaths seem incomplete as at 23 April 2020 when the data was extracted).
https://fyi.org.nz/request/12583-number-...

The concern - and reason for these OIAs - is that these additional deaths were due to diagnosed and uncounted COVID19 deaths.
There is no evidence of the MoH being aware of this information in the documents proactively released on the government website below on Friday.
https://covid19.govt.nz/resources/key-do...

It seems that there is high urgency to this analysis so that facts can be incorporated into the public conversation about "where to next" and the MoH can take advantage of input and advice from experts in the community.

If there was significant transmission in NZ prior to lock down then this would impact the testing strategy (to include antibody testing), the genetic sequencing approach (to include many more cases not just the officially confirmed cases), review of the medical notes for people who died "breathless" in February and March, and reassessment of the risk management approach to opening the border. Significant herd immunity has benefits after all.

There would also be significant international scientific interest in the experience of a country infected during the summer months as the Northern Hemisphere gets to the end of Spring.

Therefore the MoH should be dedicating significant resources to producing this data set as early as possible. Ideally in the coming working week.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Johnston