133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wel ington 6140
New Zealand
+64 4 496 2000
Chris Johnston
By email:
[FYI request #12581 email]
Ref:
H202002127
Dear Mr Johnston
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) on 29 April 2020
for:
“Could you please provide a data set in Excel or csv file with the following columns -
for the last 5 years by month to the end of March 2020 for the whole of New Zealand.
Column 1 to 5
- Residential Facility Name
- Level of Care (E.g. Rest Home, Dementia, Hospital Level)
- Physical Address
- Geocoded Location - NZTM
- DHB within which the Residential Care Facility resides
Column 6 - Number of Residents at the Start of the Period
Column 7 - Deaths During Period - whether the person died in the facility or in another
facility (such as a public hospital)
Column 8 - Age Group at Death (in 10 year bands)
I would expect that these numbers are available from the MoH's payment system for
residential care, or a national dataset collated from DHB systems. Residents should be
able to be counted and tracked via their NHI number (which records their date of death
and age at death).
If there are any commercial or privacy issues with the above dataset then please
discuss. There may be ways that you can communicate:
A - the % Death Rate per Facility (Column 7 / Column 6)
B - wider Age Groups (e.g. 10 year bands to 90 then everyone above 90)
C - Hide the Facility Name
I would prefer the raw data though so please consult early so that we can agree and
the MoH can meet the OIA timeline.”
On 8 May 2020, the due date for responding to this request was extended under section 15A
of the Act.
I have included with this letter a spreadsheet of data relating to deaths of people living in an
aged residential care facility in New Zealand. This data is broken down by district health board
(DHB) and care category by four-week periods for financial years 1 July to 30 June for each of
the years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 (to 18 May). The DHB indicates the region where
the resident's facility is located.
The data was extracted from the payment system that pays aged residential care providers
per resident per day. It only includes information for residents that are DHB subsidised, the
information does not include rest home residents who pay the full cost themselves, which is
estimated to currently be around 5,000 residents. You should note that data in the payment
system is subject to revision and that an extract at a later date would likely contain some
differences.
The data does not include short-term residents such as respite, or step-down from acute
hospital who wil return to their usual residence.
The Ministry of Health’s (the Ministry) payment data does not hold information on the
geocoded location of death. This part of your request is refused under section 18(g) of the Act.
I was unable to provide you with data which included deaths by facility, month, service
category and age bracket, as this combination of information could enable individuals to be
identified, including providing personal information about those not funded by a DHB.
Therefore, this part of your request is refused under section 9(2)(a) of the Act. Please note
that the Ministry’s duty to consider an individual’s personal information includes information
relating to those who are deceased.
Under section 28 of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review any decision
made on your request.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website.
Yours sincerely
Emma Prestidge
Acting Deputy Director-General
Health System Improvement and Innovation
Document Outline
