West Coast District Health Board
Te Poari Hauora a Rohe o Tai Poutini
Corporate Office
Telephone 03 769-7400
High Street, Greymouth 7840
Fax 03 769-7791

11 March 2022

Paul Blackham

Email:  [FYI request #18404 email]

Dear Paul Blackham

RE Official Information Act request WCDHB 9662

I  refer  to  your  email  dated  1  February  2022  requesting  the  following  information  under  the  Official
Information Act from West Coast DHB. Specifically:

The  number  of  people  that  have  visited  any/all  hospitals  and  doctor's  surgeries  within  the
WCDHB for any/all heart related issues, (including but not limited to pericarditis, myocarditis,
heart attacks and strokes). The data requested is for the 11 month period from February 2021
until  December  2021  inclusive,  displayed  in  month  by  month  format,  and  compared  to  the
monthly data for the previous three years.

Response

Please refer to Appendix 1 (attached) for details of inpatients admitted to our secondary care facility,
Te Nikau Grey Hospital, for stroke and for heart related issues over the past four years as requested.
Given the particularly wide scope of the request, this admission data has been clustered by diagnostic
related groupings where stroke and heart related issues were the primary reason for admission.

West Coast DHB does not hold a central record of outpatient attendances or community contact visits
by our various DHB medical and allied health services in such a way that we can easily determine the
number  of  people  that  have  visited  any  of  our  hospital-based  services  for  any/all  heart  issues.  The
only  such  information  that  may  be  recorded  being  that  held  in  individual  clinical  case  notes  and
patient records as may be pertinent to individual patient concerned.   We therefore decline to provide
additional  information  that  may  or  may  not  be  held  if  we  undertook  a  manual  research  of  each  of
individual  patients’  case  notes  under  Section  18  (f)  of  the  Official  Information  Act  i.e.  “…  that  the
information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.”

We  do  not  collect  data  relating  to  the  specific  reasons  that  individual  patients  present  for
consultations at their respective General Practices that operate with the West Coast DHB region.   We
therefore  decline  your  request  for  additional  information  in  this  regard  under  Section  18(g)  of  the
Official Information Act i.e. “… that the information requested is not held” by the West Coast DHB.

I trust that this satisfies your interest in this matter.

You may, under section 28(3) of the Official Information Act, seek a review of our decision to withhold
information  by  the  Ombudsman.    Information  about  how  to  make  a  complaint  is  available  at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz; or Freephone 0800 802 602.

Please note that this response, or an edited version of this response, may be published on the West
Coast DHB website after your receipt of this response.

Yours sincerely

Ralph La Salle
Senior Manager, OIAs
Canterbury DHB & West Coast DHB

APPENDIX 1
Appendix 1 9662 - Inpatients Admitted to Te Nikau Grey Hospital with a Primary Diagnosis of Stroke or for Heart-related Conditions, 2018 – 2021.
Arrhythmia,
Other
Acute
Cardiac Arrest
Congenital
Stroke and Related
Coronary
Heart Failure
Infective
Circulatory
Unstable
Valvular
Grand
Year
Month
Myocardial
and
Heart
Cerebrovascular
Atherosclerosis
and Shock
Endocarditis
Disorders -
Angina
Disorders
Total
Infarction
Conduction
Disease
Disorders
Heart related
Disorders
RELEASED
2018
January
4
14
2
5
1
4
6
1
37
February
9
17
3
2
3
3
4
41
March
9
12
4
3
3
5
5
41
April
5
11
1
4
2
2
8
2
1
36
May
6
14
6
6
10
1
43
June
7
12
2
9
1
2
4
3
40
July
7
9
3
5
3
7
4
38
August
8
14
1
7
6
1
37
UNDER
September
10
6
1
4
2
3
1
1
28
October
8
13
1
6
2
3
6
1
1
41
November
3
12
2
7
1
5
1
31
December
6
17
5
1
2
2
3
1
37
2018 Total
82
151
20
63
5
21
57
42
9
450
2019
January
7
12
2
2
2
1
1
27
THE
February
6
17
2
5
1
7
6
44
March
3
3
8
7
3
2
1
27
April
7
14
4
5
1
9
5
45
OFFICIAL
May
2
10
5
8
6
2
33
June
7
11
1
7
1
6
1
1
35
July
9
12
2
10
3
6
2
2
46
August
5
14
3
8
2
1
6
4
43
September
3
8
3
9
1
1
6
2
2
35
October
3
7
2
7
3
2
2
26
November
6
8
3
8
1
1
5
2
34
INFORMATION
December
7
12
3
4
1
2
3
1
1
34
2019 Total
65
128
38
80
6
12
61
28
11
429
2020
January
6
14
1
4
10
3
1
39
February
6
8
5
5
5
4
3
36
March
6
13
2
3
1
7
2
1
35
April
9
3
4
1
1
2
3
1
1
25
May
6
9
4
1
3
5
1
29
June
2
10
1
6
1
12
2
2
36
July
7
14
3
4
2
5
5
1
41
August
7
11
5
7
4
6
1
1
42
ACT
September
10
18
3
11
2
6
2
1
53
October
4
14
1
9
1
1
7
1
1
39
November
3
11
7
4
1
3
7
4
7
47
December
6
16
1
11
1
2
2
1
40
2020 Total
72
141
33
69
5
24
74
27
17
462
2021
January
7
7
2
10
1
6
4
4
41
February
4
13
3
1
7
2
30
March
11
15
5
8
3
10
2
3
57
April
5
13
1
5
1
12
3
40

May
7
12


6
1
2
20
4
1
53

June
6
9

3
9

1
5
3
1
37

July
8
12

4
14


10

1
49

August
5
10
1
1
8

2
6
3
2
38

September
8
9

2
5

3
5
2

34

October
4
9

4
9

3
5
2

36

November
5
12

7
7

1
3
2
1
38
RELEASED

December
5
14


1

2
3
2
4
31
2021 Total

75
135
1
32
83
1
19
92
27
19
484

UNDER
THE
OFFICIAL
INFORMATION
ACT

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