18 January 2023
Chris McCashin
[FYI request #21145 email]
Tēnā koe Chris
Your Official Information Act request, reference: HNZ00008423
Thank you for your email of 6 December 2022, asking for the following which has been considered
under the Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act):
“A similar request here received a response
https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&d=ybmO4xw0PLLlk3GkNiPVzXnnl5tznIomV3jIY
QV39A&u=https%3a%2f%2ffyi%2eorg%2enz%2frequest%2f12581-deaths-in-aged-care-
residential-facilities-5-years-of-monthly-data%23incoming-48814
I require the same data but going back a few more years - please respond identically to the
above request
Please note - this letter is dated 2 June 2020.
It mentions that it does not include the total number of people who pay the full cost
themselves which is estimated to be around 5,000. Your letter dated 6 December 2022
estimates that the total number of residents who pay for the cost themselves is 2,000. That
seems to be an awful lot of people who have died in the last few years. If those two
numbers are accurate as at that date then 60% of these people that had paid themselves
have either died or disappeared? Is that a cause for concern?
Please provide the data similar to the previous response”
On 6 January 2023, Te Whatu Ora contacted you to refine your request, otherwise it would likely
be refused under section 18(f) of the Act as substantial manual collation would be required to
provide the information requested. We did not receive a response to this request within the allotted
timeframe.
Please note the request you refer to above included different information to your current request.
The previous information was readily available at that time as this work had been compiled prior to
the OIA request.
At this time, the information you are requesting is not readily available. Therefore, in order to
provide a similar response to the above, Te Whatu Ora would need to divert personnel from their
core duties and allocate extra time to complete this task. The diversion of these resources would
impair Te Whatu Ora’s ability to continue standard operations and would be an inefficient use of Te
Whatu Ora’s resources. As such, your request is refused under section 18(f) of the Act, requires
substantial collation.
We have considered whether extending the timeframe for responding to your request and fixing a
charge for the supply of the information would remove the administrative burden. However, even
with these options, the resources required to provide the information would significantly affect the
performance of Te Whatu Ora’s other duties.
In reference to your concern around the dif erence in the number of patients reported, the
discrepancy is that while there are around 5,000 that pay the full cost themselves, a number
(around 3,000) are in the payment system at a zero rate. The difference is not because of an
unusual number of deaths. Therefore, a more accurate answer is: “The payment system does not
record around 2,000 of the 5,000 residents who pay the full cost themselves.”
How to get in contact
If you have any questions, you can contact us a
t [email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on Health NZ’s website. Al requester data, including your name
and contact details, wil be removed prior to release. The released response wil be made available
on our website.
Nāku iti noa, nā
pp.
Sasha Wood
Interim Lead OIA & Proactive Release
Government Partnership and Risk
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
