Correspondence and guidance relating to support for long covid sufferers
Scout Barbour-Evans made this Official Information request to Ministry of Health
The request was partially successful.
From: Scout Barbour-Evans
Tēnā koe Ministry of Health,
I’m (unfortunately) a long covid sufferer in Ōtepoti, trying to understand what supports there could be in future for New Zealanders like myself and how long we are going to have to wait for help.
For the purposes of this request, when I say “long covid” I am referring to BOTH patients with ongoing symptomatic covid 19 (+4 to +12 weeks from infection) and patients with post covid 19 syndrome (+12 weeks from infection).
When I say “social support” I refer to the disability support required by people with chronic illness, for example home help, transport help, extra healthcare costs. This is with the assumption that the Ministry of Social Development continues to not fund these things for people with chronic health conditions instead of physical disabilities.
With the above in mind, I am seeking under the Official Information Act the following information:
1. Any internal correspondence or documentation discussing matters like;
a. Which government authority/ministry should be in charge of social supports for long covid sufferers.
b. What proposed social supports there should be for long covid sufferers.
c. What medical supports are proposed for long covid sufferers eg: any standardised testing, referrals that should be made.
d. What financial cost will the above medical and social supports entail for not only current long covid sufferers, but future long covid sufferers too.
e. What recommendations have been made by both medical professionals and other health professionals about these supports both social and medical.
I appreciate your mahi in finding this info for me, and understand how hectic your jobs have been bringing this information to the public in recent years! Thank you for your work.
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou,
Scout Barbour-Evans
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora Scout,
Thank you for your request for official information. The Ministry's
reference number for your request is: H2022008412.
As required under the Official Information Act 1982, the Ministry will
endeavour to respond to your request no later than 20 working days after
the day your request was received. If you'd like to calculate the
timeframe, you can use the Ombudsman's online calculator
here: [1]http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
If you have any queries related to this request, please do not hesitate to
get in touch.
Ngā mihi
OIA Services Team
M[2]inistry of Health information releases
U[3]nite against COVID-19
show quoted sections
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora Scout
Thank you for your request for official information, received on 24 July
2022 for:
1. Any internal correspondence or documentation discussing
matters like;
a. Which government authority/ministry should be in charge of social
supports for long covid sufferers.
b. What proposed social supports there should be for long covid
sufferers.
c. What medical supports are proposed for long covid sufferers eg: any
standardised testing, referrals that should be made.
d. What financial cost will the above medical and social supports entail
for not only current long covid sufferers, but future long covid sufferers
too.
e. What recommendations have been made by both medical professionals and
other health professionals about these supports both social and medical.
We are contacting you in accordance with section 18B of the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act) as your request, as it is currently worded,
is for a very large volume of information. Your request may be refused
under section 18(f) of the Act as the information requested cannot be made
available without substantial collation or research.
Your request would require collating hundreds of documents. A significant
portion of these are texts and emails, which also require individual
assessment of each piece of correspondence to discern its contents. This
would place an unreasonable degree of strain on the team responsible and
would interfere with the day-to-day workings of the Ministry.
We suggest that you refine your request to remove references to internal
correspondence and documentation and simply leave parts (a) through to
(e), so that we can provide you with a more succinct and useful response.
Please respond by 8 August 2022 so that we can consider your refinement in
our response to your request.
We look forward to receiving your response.
Ngā mihi
OIA Services Team
M[1]inistry of Health information releases
U[2]nite against COVID-19
show quoted sections
References
Visible links
1. https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministr...
2. https://covid19.govt.nz/
From: Scout Barbour-Evans
Kia ora OIA Requests,
That change is workable. Instead of internal correspondence, can I amend my request to ask for just reports, key evidence and documentation instead please.
Ngā mihi nui,
Scout Barbour-Evans
From: OIA Requests
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H2022008412.pdf
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H2022008412 documents.pdf
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Kia ora Scout
Please find attached a response to your request for official information.
Ngā mihi
OIA Services Team
M[1]inistry of Health information releases
U[2]nite against COVID-19
show quoted sections
References
Visible links
1. https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministr...
2. https://covid19.govt.nz/
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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