133 Molesworth
Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
4 September 2018
T Monk
By email: [FYI request #8337 email]
Ref: H201805417
Dear T Monk,
Response to your request for official information
I refer to your official information request received on 7 August 2018, in which you request
the fol owing information under the Official Information Act 1982
(the Act):
Thank you for supplying the numbers of hospital discharges with the diagnosis of
Guillian Barré Syndrome and Motor Neurone disease.
Could I please have these stats for a 20 year period to establish a trend
I appreciate that whoever has replied to my inquiries has access to digital data - so
stats over a longer period should be easily accessible.
As far as I can see, ESR, a private company does not publicly provide long term
results on anything.
Given the government pays ESR it would be odd if the Ministry of Health did not have
access to ESR data.
Could you please check to see if ESR data is stored by the govt; in which case the
preferred source for long term stats related to Campylobacter infections would be the
Ministry of Health. If the govt has it or has access to ESR data on it, could you please
supply that and the rates of Guillian Barré Syndrome and Motor Neurone Disease
over 20 years.
Attached is the hospitalisation information relating to Appendix One – Guillian-Barré
Syndrome and Appendix Two - Motor Neurone Disease. Please note that as per our
previous response to you, (H201805030) this data is a count of hospital discharges, people
will be counted each time they are hospitalised and those people with Guillian Barré
Syndrome and/or Motor Neurone disease that have not been hospitalised, are not included
in the attached data sets.
For further information The Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) is a
Crown Research Institute and is subject to the Official Information Act 1982.
As per our previous response to you (H201805030) the information you have requested
relating to Campylobacter is contained within the Annual Surveillance Summaries and
Outbreak reports are publically available at the following address:
https://surv.esr.cri.nz/surveillance/annual_surveillance.php
For further information or queries relating to ESR data please contact ESR directly at
the following email address: [email address]
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of these
decisions. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or free phone: 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Ann-Marie Cavanagh
Chief Technology and Digital Services Officer
Technology and Digital Services
