Dear Tairawhiti District Health Board,

Tēnā koutou,

Please find below my Official information request under the Official Information Act 1982:

1. Bed occupancy rates at the public hospital/hospitals from July 2007 to June 2016. Please note that I would like monthly data on this. However, if monthly data is not available, please specify the reason.

2. If monthly data is unavailable, the next preference will be quarterly data, if quarterly is not available then I will accept half-yearly. Furthermore, as last resort yearly data.

3. I am also willing to accept data on bed occupancy rates at random intervals within a year.

Please also include the method used to calculate bed-occupancy rates by your DHB.

Ngā mihi,

Antony Andrews

Dear Toni Lexmond,
Thank you for your email and I appreciate the time you have taken to compile the information on bed occupancy.
However, I am not able to understand how the bed-occupancy is actually calculated:
Here are the points I like to know:
1. The explanation you have given only tells me when it is calculated, but I am interested in the actual formulae of how bed occupancy is calculated. For example, in some jurisdictions, it is the ratio of number of inpatient bed days to the total number of bed (which I assume you have used), while others use raw count of patients divided by number of beds.

Please clarify, which methodology has been used by your DHB.

Yours sincerely,

Antony Andrews

Dear Toni Lexmond,
Also please could you clarify, what is the date when the census for bed occupancy rates is taken for each of those years?
In other words, is it the same time every year, if it is, when?

Thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Antony Andrews