Medical Panel Review Specialists from January 2017 to date
Anthony Jordan made this Official Information request to Accident Compensation Corporation
The request was successful.
From: Anthony Jordan
Dear Accident Compensation Corporation,
1/ Please disclose names of specialists for each month from January 2017 to date, involved in Medical Panel Review hearings.
2/ Please disclose the total of cases that were deemed to be related to Concussions/Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries for respective months
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Jordan
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Dear Mr Jordan
Thank you for your email below, dated 4 December 2017, requesting
information under the Official Information Act 1982 regarding Medical
Review Panel specialists.
We have interpreted your use of the term ‘Medical Review Panel’ to be
‘External Medical Panel’, with reference to your recent clarification
email of 16 November 2017 about the two terms for a previous request.
ACC is working on your request and will be in touch with you as soon as
possible, and certainly by 23 January 2018.
Please note, this complies with the 20 working days timeframe allowed for
under the Act, which excludes the period 25 December to 15 January.
If you have any questions we will be happy to work with you to resolve
these. We can be contacted via email at [1][email address].
Yours sincerely
Government Engagement and Support
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From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Dear Mr Jordan
Please find attached a letter of extension with regard to your Official
Information Act request of 4 December 2017.
Yours sincerely
OIA Services
Government Engagement and Support
ACC / PO Box 242 / Wellington 6140 / New Zealand /
[1]www.acc.co.nz
ACC cares about the environment – please don’t print this email
unless it is really necessary. Thank you.
Disclaimer:
"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged
information. If you believe you have received this email in error, please
advise us immediately by return email or telephone and then delete this
email together with all attachments. If you are not the intended
recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message or any
attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."
References
Visible links
1. http://www.acc.co.nz/
http://www.acc.co.nz/
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Dear Mr Jordan
Please find attached a letter from ACC in response to your Official
Information Act request of 4 December 2017.
Yours sincerely
Government Engagement and Support
ACC / PO Box 242 / Wellington 6140 / New Zealand /
[1]www.acc.co.nz
ACC cares about the environment – please don’t print this email
unless it is really necessary. Thank you.
Disclaimer:
"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged
information. If you believe you have received this email in error, please
advise us immediately by return email or telephone and then delete this
email together with all attachments. If you are not the intended
recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message or any
attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."
References
Visible links
1. http://www.acc.co.nz/
http://www.acc.co.nz/
From: Anthony Jordan
Dear Government Services,
Could you please elaborate in layman's terms the issue with disclosing information publically? I'm having difficulty understanding Section 15
with thanks
Yours sincerely,
Anthony Jordan
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Dear Mr Jordan
We refer you to the Office of the Ombudsman’s Official information
legislation guides, which are available on the Ombudsman’s website at:
[1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resources-and-publications/guides/official-information-legislation-guides,
for a detailed explanation of Sections 15 and 16 of the Official
Information Act 1982.
Section 15(1) relates to making a decision on a request. Section 16
relates to the way in which information is provided.
We await receipt of your personal email as this will enable ACC to provide
the information we have prepared in response to your request of 4 December
2017.
Yours sincerely
Government Engagement and Support
ACC / PO Box 242 / Wellington 6140 / New Zealand / [2]www.acc.co.nz
ACC cares about the environment – please don’t print this email unless it
is really necessary. Thank you.
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Anthony Jordan left an annotation ()
Thank You Luke...it was all over my head, I didn't see the issue with names disclosure as it was only related to meetings rather than any financial or commercial interests with ACC.
In any case, I've received the information which is helpful to proceed further.
Thankyou for help Luke
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Luke C left an annotation ()
Anthony
Owing to what I deduce as a privacy consideration in respect of part 1 of your request, ACC do not wish to publish the names of the medical specialists on the open Web. They therefore wish to send you this information directly instead, so as to avoid publishing it on fyi.org.nz.
The Ombudsman has published guidance on the consideration of privacy interests when agencies publish information online to websites including. fyi.org.nz is specifically discussed as one of the websites. I have extracted the relevant paragraphs from the guidance, and they are as follows:
"FYI is not intended to be a tool for making requests for personal information about the
requester or others. However, there may be information the requester is not aware of that
raises privacy implications. Agencies will need to consider the privacy interests of the requester
(if applicable) and others in responding to requests via FYI."
"Requesters should think carefully about what they’re requesting and whether it could raise any
privacy implications for themselves or for others. FYI is not intended to be a tool for seeking
personal information about requesters or others. Requesters who want to make their request
in private should contact the relevant agency direct."
"Requesters should also be aware that agencies may be hesitant about publishing online
information that relates directly or indirectly to their staff (for instance, names, phone
numbers, email addresses etc). If requesters are not seeking information of this nature, they
could consider saying so up-front. This may help ensure a more timely response."
If you refused to provide your private email address to ACC as the means by which you choose to receive the information, ACC may determine that the publication of the specialists' names would increase the likelihood of harming the privacy of these specialists, such that ACC would withhold the names from being released to you.
If you believed that the names should be published, then it would be advisable to have ACC make out whether the privacy interest would be sufficiently great, that ACC would invoke 9(2)(a). It would take a period of time for ACC to consider the privacy considerations in releasing the names on fyi.org.nz. They would need to consider:
1. the strength of privacy interest, and
2. whether the interest was outweighed by other factors (the public interest test).
A possible outcome of this consideration is that the names are withheld pursuant to section 9(2)(a). So to avoid this from happening, you would provide your private email address.
In my view, you should send your private email address to the person managing your request, either via fyi.org.nz or directly. They will, it seems, then send you the names of the specialists.
http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/syste...
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