Dear Ministry of Health,

I am writing to seek your assistance in being provided access to all official information that is associated with my following requests for information;

1).

It would be greatly appreciated if you could please provide full official information as to how an individual can apply to gain access to copies of their full personal and medical information stored in their full NHI and MWS and any other unique identifier that can be attached to or linked off either a NHI and MWS unique identifier attached to that individual.

2).

It would also be appreciated if you could at the same time confirm how an individual can obtain their full information as noted above covering a period of time, i.e.. 1 yr, 2, yrs 5 yrs etc, and at the same stage have provided to them a record of every individual entry, be it an addition, modification and or deletion to the information already stored under the individuals unique identifiers referred to above in 1).

3).

Can you also provide information as to how the individual can request access to confirm the entity and or individual who has entered, modified and or deleted information in that individual's unique identifiers referred to in1).above.

4)

Please also specify which agency an individual should approach to gain access to the above information, should they be in-between doctor patient relationships.

Under s16(2) of the Official Information Act, my preferred way of
receiving a response is by email to the address from which ACC
received the original request, not by post, and I thank you for
your time and assistance.

Yours faithfully,

David Lawson

Dear Ministry of Health,

Thank you for your response, and I return to you to seek further clarification about the following request which has not been clarified to me from your response;

3).

Can you also provide information as to how the individual can request
access to confirm the entity and or individual who has entered, modified
and or deleted information in that individual's unique identifiers
referred to in1).above.

The website that you have referred me to http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/healt..., provides the following information which does not clarify the answer to my question;
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Finding out the information about you in the NHI

If you wish to obtain information held against your NHI number, you should make a request in writing using the following:

Postal address Privacy Request

Analytical Services
Ministry of Health
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6145
Phone (04) 496 2000
Email [email address]
You will need to provide your full name (and any aliases), date of birth, address and phone number. Before information is released, a quality-assurance process is followed to authenticate the person requesting the information. This is done by asking a number of questions against data held in the NHI. Once these questions have been answered successfully, a request is placed to extract demographic information from the NHI and all event information associated with your NHI number in the national data collections. These include:

National Mortality Register
New Zealand Cancer Registry
Laboratories, which hold claim and payment data from laboratories for subsidised laboratory services
Pharmhouse, which holds claim and payment data submitted by pharmacists for subsidised dispensing since 1992
Mental Health Information
National Minimum Dataset (inpatient events)
National Booking Reporting System (surgery waitlist)
Maternity and Newborn Information System
Medical Warnings System
Hepatitis B (screening programme)
An information pack is put together and sent to the address specified by the person requesting the information. This pack includes information collected from the data collections listed above, a covering letter answering any specific questions that the requester may have asked, and an information booklet.

A register is maintained of requests for NHI information made to the Ministry.
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I have had previous contact with the MOH who have indicated that certain information needed to be obtained from your GP in respect to information that is held on an individual's NHI and or MWS or associated number, which seems a bit strange.

I followed through with what the MOH had suggested and approached my GP for the information not provided by the MOH, but which they suggested that I ask for from my GP.

The information requested from my GP was not provided in response to two requests, and the doctor patient relationship has since ended with me still not having had been provided with the information that the MOH said that I needed to obtain from the GP.

It would therefore be appreciated if you could provide a full response to question 3 above of my OIA request submitted on 3/3/16 whilst also providing the following information;

a) why would the the MOH have referred me to my GP for information that is stored on my NHI and or MWS numbers. Should not all information have been provided to me with my request for my full NHI and associated records upon my first request, made last year to the MOH?

b) If all information is not provided by the MOH in response to an individuals request through the channels that you have referred me to, please provide me with all official information associated with or related to the classes of information that specify which classes of information which may be stored on an individual's MHI and or MWS, but for which the MOH do not release as standard, in response to an individual's request for their full NHI / MWS and or other associated and linked unique identifiers.

I thank you for your time and assistance and look forward to hearing back from you shortly.

Yours faithfully,

David Lawson