14 April 2025
Sam C
[FYI request #29827 email]
Tēnā koe Sam
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00083573
Thank you for your email on 17 March 2025, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora for the
following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
1. You have already compiled data relating to tonsil ectomy/adenoidectomy procedures
(ACHI block code 412). This is a great start - thank you.
2. As I recall, the NMDS records distinct hospitalisation events. I have previously observed
this as a rectangular dataset - where each row represents a new hospitalisation event, and
each column is a different variable, with values relevant to each row's hospitalisation event.
3. I presume that to create the initial dataset that you sent me, you filtered the NMDS for
the presence of an ACHI procedure code from block code 412, grouped the results by year,
age group and DHB, and then summarised/counted the rows.
4. What I am now asking for is, for those hospitalisation events (rows in the dataset) that
contain the relevant procedure codes, how many also contain ICD-10-AM codes (in the
diagnosis code columns. ) for:
* Diabetes (E10.x, type I diabetes mellitus; E11.x, type II diabetes mellitus).
* Sleep apnea (G47.3x)
* Asthma (J45.x)
(.x represents any trailing numbers in the specific codes)
(i.e., count those that have a procedure code relating to tonsil ectomy/adenoidectomy
procedures (ACHI block code 412) AND a diagnosis code relating to each of the
comorbidities above).
Response
The national level hospitalisations data held by Health NZ is collated into the National Minimum
Dataset (NMDS). This dataset is structured as a series of relational tables, which need to be joined
together to create the data you describe. It is likely the data you have seen had been carefully
curated to produce this output. Health New Zealand does undertake work to create such datasets
from NMDS for researchers and other organisations who produce health statistics and analytics.
There are costs associated with producing this type of output for research organisations.
Please note that the Act does not require an agency to create new information to answer a
request. Your request is therefore refused under section 18(g) of the Act.
How to get in touch
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 our website. Al requester data, including your name and
contact details, wil be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Stuart Bloomfield
Interim Director Data and Analytics
Planning, Funding and Outcomes
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
