Planning and Funding
P O Box 1600,
Telephone: 0064 3 364 4193
CHRISTCHURCH
Fax: 0064 3 364 4165
[email address]
31 March 2021
Moshe Livne
Email: [FYI request #14814 email]
Dear Moshe
RE Official Information Act request CDHB 10579
We are writing to acknowledge your email dated 31 March 2021 requesting the following
information under the Official Information Act from Canterbury DHB. Specifically:
1. Regarding the unavailability of 2018 report - what you are saying is actually that that data was
not moved from one system to the other and therefor you did not produce these very basic
quality reports for at least 3 years? 2020 is an outlier, so I can get no meaningful data out of it.
I would think that the data I am asking for is the very minimum DHB has to monitor in order to
provide quality assessment for the services they are providing. To phrase the question more
formally: Was the CDHB not monitoring the quality of cardiac services for 2017, 2018, 2019? If
they did, can I have the quality reports.
2. From your response I understand that Echo (which is currently the most definitive low cost
screening procedure) wait times are not monitored by the CDHB for the last 3 years and no
one is looking for correlation between Echo wait times and hospitalisation/death incidents?
Again, more formally: Was the CDHB not monitoring the quality of cardiac diagnostic services
and the correlation to hospitalisation/death for 2017, 2018, 2019? If they did, can I have the
quality reports.
3. Same goes to ED while on waiting list. If you do not hold this information, this is a bit
worrying. How can you budget your services without such report? Cost of ED vs cost of
increasing procedures bandwidth, etc. Formally: Does the CDHB produce quality reports to
measure how many people were admitted to ED for heart condition while waiting for a
diagnostic/procedure?
We will consider your request against the provisions of the Official Information Act (see below) and
advise you of our decision regarding the release of information within 20 working days (being the
statutory timeframe provided within the Act.)
Accordingly, and taking into account public holidays for Easter and Anzac Day, we will notify you no
later than 3 May 2021 of our decision.
15 Decisions on requests
(1) Subject to this Act, the department or Minister of the Crown or organisation to whom a request is made in accordance wit
h section 12
or is transferred in accordance wit
h section 14 of this Act o
r section 12 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act
1987 shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than 20 working days after the day on which the request is received
by that department or Minister of the Crown or organisation,—
(1)(a) decide whether the request is to be granted and, if it is to be granted, in what manner and for what charge (if any); and
(1)(b) give or post to the person who made the request notice of the decision on the request
[If we are unable to make a decision on your request by the date noted above, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.]
Your request is being handled by Faye Tiffin. If you have any queries, please feel free to contact
either myself (details above) or Faye
. ([email address]; phone (03) 364-4192).
Please refer to the OIA number above when phoning or emailing. If any additional factors come to
light which are relevant to your request, please do not hesitate to contact us so that these can be
taken into account.
Yours sincerely
Ralph La Salle
Acting Executive Director
Planning, Funding & Decision Support
15 Decisions on requests
(1) Subject to this Act, the department or Minister of the Crown or organisation to whom a request is made in accordance wit
h section 12
or is transferred in accordance wit
h section 14 of this Act o
r section 12 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act
1987 shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than 20 working days after the day on which the request is received
by that department or Minister of the Crown or organisation,—
(1)(a) decide whether the request is to be granted and, if it is to be granted, in what manner and for what charge (if any); and
(1)(b) give or post to the person who made the request notice of the decision on the request
[If we are unable to make a decision on your request by the date noted above, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.]
