Printed from https://fyi.org.nz/request/33470-foi-minister-brown-health-demand on January 10, 2026 22:43

FOI minister brown health demand

Hayden made this Official Information request to Simeon Brown

Currently waiting for a response from Simeon Brown, they must respond promptly and normally no later than (details and exceptions).

From: Hayden

Dear Simeon Brown, Minister of Health

Your government's policies generate health demand while your budgets cut the services meant to absorb it. This is the structural issue I am requesting documentation on.
Health NZ has confirmed in writing (HNZ00106546) that they do not monitor whether economic policy drives mental health demand, do not coordinate with the Reserve Bank on health impacts of rate changes, and exclude economic modelling from demand forecasting. Nobody is counting the patients created by policy decisions in other portfolios.
The results are predictable. A woman died in Rotorua ED in August 2024 after a three-hour wait — staff had warned management two weeks earlier. Middlemore treated 1,500 patients in corridors in one month. Wellington Hospital processed under 40% of patients within six hours on some days. The Manage My Health breach — 126,000 records stolen after you cut $480 million from digital infrastructure — is the same pattern: gut the system, express concern at the outcome.
When you cut funding to an already-failing service while running policies that increase demand on it, people die. The absence of cross-portfolio modelling doesn't make the deaths invisible. It just means nobody is required to count them.

Under the Official Information Act, I request:

Any analysis of how monetary, welfare, or housing policy affects health system demand — or confirmation none exists.

Any communication between Health NZ, Ministry of Health, Treasury, RBNZ, or MSD regarding cross-portfolio health impacts since October 2023.

Health NZ's demand forecasting methodology, including which demand drivers are excluded.

Risk assessments conducted prior to the 2024-2025 health funding decisions.

Internal reporting on ED deaths, near-misses, or sentinel events linked to resource constraints since January 2024.

Any mechanism by which health costs of other portfolios' decisions are fed back to relevant Ministers.

If this information does not exist, that is the problem I am identifying.
I expect a response within 20 working days.
Ngā mihi,

Yours faithfully,

Hayden

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From: Simeon Brown (MIN)
Simeon Brown

Thank you for contacting the Hon Simeon Brown, Minister of Health,
Minister for State Owned Enterprises, and Minister for Auckland.

The Minister’s office is closed from midday 24 December and reopens on 7
January 2026. 

If the topic of your correspondence falls outside of the Minister's
portfolio responsibilities, expresses a personal view, or is copied to
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be transferred to another Minister’s office, or there may be no further
response to you.

If your correspondence is related to a constituent matter, please get in
touch with the Minister’s electorate team by email
at[1][email address]

 

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of Health. If your matter relates to mental health, neurodiversity,
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[2][email address].

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[3][email address].

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References

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