Outsourcing elective procedures
Andrew Riddell made this Official Information request to Health New Zealand
The request was partially successful.
From: Andrew Riddell
Dear Te Whatu Ora,
In a press release this morning the Minister of Health announced that Te Whatu Ora "is partnering with private hospitals to expand surgical capacity across the country. The plan aims to deliver over 10,579 additional elective procedures by the end of June – a target now well within reach, with 9,696 procedures completed by the week ending 11 May. Of those, 8,631 were delivered through outsourcing."
Please provided the following information with respect to additional elective procedures completed by the week ending 11 May:
- for each private hospital involved the number and type of these additional elective procedures provided
- for each private hospital the total amount paid for these additional elective procedures provided
- for each type of elective procedure included in these additional elective procedures, provide the waiting list by former health board areas (or current equivalent) as it was on 1 January 2025 and on 12 May 2025.
Thank you
Andrew Riddell
From: hnzOIA
Tēnā koe,
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Ngā mihi
Health NZ, Te Whatu Ora.
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From: hnzOIA
Tēnā koe Andrew,
Thank you for your request for information, please find attached our
response to your request.
I apologise for the delay in providing our response. The time taken is not
what we aspire to. This is something we are working to get on top of as we
deal with a high volume of requests and the understandably high public
interest in our work.
If you have any questions, please get in touch
at [1][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 [2]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi,
Giana (she/her)
Government Services (OIA)
[3][email address]
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Statement of confidentiality: This email message and any accompanying
attachments may contain information that is IN-CONFIDENCE and subject to
legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use,
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References
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1. mailto:[Health New Zealand request email]
2. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
3. mailto:[email address]
From: hnzOIA
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HNZ Further Response HNZ00090795.pdf
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Appendix 1 HNZ00090795 further response.xlsx
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Kia ora Andrew
On 12 June 2025, you submitted a request to Health New Zealand | Te Whatu
Ora (Health NZ) seeking information regarding elective outsourcing. I
understand you were not happy with our decision under the Official
Information Act (OIA) of 17 July 2025 to withhold information in scope of
parts one and two of your request and that you subsequently made a
complaint to the Ombudsman. Health NZ has since reconsidered the release
of the information in scope of these parts of your request. Please find
attached a further response to your request.
If you have any questions, please get in touch at
[1][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 [2]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi,
Emmie
Government Services
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Statement of confidentiality: This email message and any accompanying
attachments may contain information that is IN-CONFIDENCE and subject to
legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use,
disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have
received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and
delete this message
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Health New Zealand request email]
2. file:///tmp/
Andrew Riddell left an annotation ()
Well it took 11 months and the involvement of the Ombudsman for Te Whatu Ora to confirm that they could not provide the information confirming the claims of the Minister of Health made in a press release about the number of extra outsourced procedures undertaken between January and May 2025.
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence (note: this contains the same information already available above).
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Andrew Riddell left an annotation ()
Any information about which private hospitals operations were outsourced to, the number and type of operations outsourced by each private hospital, and the cost were are refused on commercial sensitivity grounds. Taking this response to the Ombudsman, as we should have better information on how our public (health) money is spent.
Link to this