3 March 2026
Tiffany Wright
[FYI request #33624 email]
Tēnā koe Tiffany
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00200325
Thank you for your email on 2 February 2026, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora (Health
NZ) for the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA):
“…The Medicines Regulations as of 1 February 2026 does not have provision for
dispensing more than these limits in the cases listed above (without authorization by the
Director-General of Health for a patient, or a specified class or classes of patients). This
creates a conflict between the Medicines Regulations and the Pharmac Schedule. This
could result in dispensing's that exceed the legal limits, more frequent dispensing of smaller
quantities to not exceed the legal limits, and other unforeseen consequences. I seek the following under the Official Information Act 1982 for the 2024 pharmaceutical
year (1 February 2024 - 31 January 2025): 1. Where the days' supply is recorded or calculated as exceeding 90 days' supply,
excluding Oral Contraceptives, provide a count of: * the number of dispensing's; and * the number of unique NHI (National Health Index) numbers recorded for these
dispensing's
2. Where the days' supply is recorded or calculated as exceeding 18”
Response
Health NZ collates information on medications dispensed in community pharmacies in the National
Pharmaceutical Collection. This data is supplied by pharmacists, based on the claims made to be
reimbursed for medications they have provided.
Pharmacists are requested to include the number of days for which a medication is supplied,
however this field is often not populated, or the value is set to 0. This means the data Health NZ
holds is incomplete and unusable for OIA purposes. As such we are refusing your request under
section 18(g) of the OIA as the data is not held in a sufficiently complete manner to be available for
release.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[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
Danielle Coe Manager, Government Services
Health New Zealand I Te Whatu Ora
