Dear Ministry of Health,

Your website includes or references a number of emergency management standards or policies that are either well out of date, or no longer able to be accessed online.

Examples:
- The National Health Emergency Plan- A framework for the health and disability sector, has extensive sections that are out of date.
- None of the ambulance standards are publicly available anymore following the disestablishment of Ambulance New Zealand, which used to operate this- " New Zealand Ambulance Major Incident and Emergency", and New Zealand aeromedical and air rescue standard" are but two examples.
- There appears to be no health emergency management system- for instance what system outlines the shared approach to patient triage and prioritisation in an emergency management setting (whether in hospital or pre-hospital, such as MIMMS or HMIMMS).

Please outline the plan and timeline to update the outdated frameworks/policies/standards, including the national health emergency plan, update and make the outdated ambulance standards available publicly, outline the timeline to develop an integrated hospital and out-of-hospital emergency plan. Provide details of how these plans integrate with the national emergency management system (CIMS), and the system for hospital and pre-hospital services to integrate with NEMA (who manage CIMS).

Please also provide copies of health (hospital or pre-hospital) emergency management plans/guidelines for weather events, power outages, natural disasters, pandemics and any other scenarios that have been developed.

Provide copies of any risk assessments that relate to these.

Yours faithfully,

Lauren Doocy

Dear OIA Requests,

To clarify, are you saying that neither ministry of HNZ cover the areas outlined?

I happen to know that both organisations do have entire teams, and quite considerable sums invested in these areas. I would suggest that you recheck with both MoH and HNZ before finalising your response as I do think this could be quite embarrassing for both organisations, as well as the corresponding ministers. Certainly that's what our publications will be saying.

Yours sincerely,

Lauren Doocy