133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T +64 4 496 2000
W www.medsafe.govt.nz
20 March 2023
Erika Whittome
By email: [FYI request #21874 email]
Ref:
H2023021449
Tēnā koe Erika
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your follow up request to Manatū Hauora (the Ministry of Health) on 8 March 2023
(H2023020621 refers). You requested:
“Are you saying that the medication error did NOT result in an adverse event? Which ID
were these for please? I provided a list and you have not identified which IDs your
responses apply to.
Sequence numbers get cached on nodes in a system for parallel processing and that would
account for one or two records jumping the sequence. This is not a busy live transactional
system in Salesforce.
However there is a sequential jump of 6000 in the date August 2021 which local caching
would not explain because the jump in sequence is too high. Where are these missing
records please?”
In late August 2021, a system upgrade for New Zealand’s COVID-19 vaccine pharmacovigilance
database, COVID-CARM (a salesforce platform), resulted in a number of glitches on the system.
These related to a change in the sequencing of the auto generated numbers that are created on
the system when an adverse event and/or medication is reported. These are called AEFI-
Assessments (AEFI-A’s).
There were two main issues that occurred. The first was that a number of dummy invalid AEFI-
Assessments (AEFI-A’s) containing no reports were created. The second was that the AEFI-A
number, generated by the salesforce platform, “jumped” by approximately 7,000 counts. There
were no actual AEFI Assessments, with or without reports, created on the COVID-CARM system
that correlated to these 7,000 AEFI-A counts.
Salesforce does not guarantee the auto-number sequence due to the nature of parallel
processing occurring in the platform. This is explained in this
Help Article. Due to this, Manatū
Hauora never uses the auto-number as an indication of how many records the Ministry has in the
platform.
Under section 28(3) of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review any decisions
made under this request. The Ombudsman may be contacted by email at:
[email address] or by calling 0800 802 602.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Manatū Hauora website at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases/responses-
official-information-act-requests. Nāku noa, nā
Chris James
Group Manager
Medsafe
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