Dear DHB,

I have repeatedly been assured from DHB's that they are committed to transparency.

Request 1:
Thus, I respectfully request that your DHB make ALL of your DHB policies, protocols and best practice documents publicly available.

While on the face of it, my request may seem like a time consuming task; however, this should not be the case. Currently, DHB policies, protocols and best practice documents are held electronically and are available on your DHB intranet (employee access only), and in many cases, there are already hyper-links between policies, protocols and best practice documents. Thus, in order to change the setting to the policies, protocols and best practice documents from private (intranet and employee access only) to public ought to be accomplished by a click of a button (or, at most, a line or two of code). Upon completion, I respectfully request a response with the website address to the DHB policies.

Request 2:
Is your DHB laboratory and radiology departments, or the agencies your DHB has contract out pathology and radiology services, IANZ accredited?

Request 3:
In the event that your DHB, or the agencies your DHB has contracted out pathology and radiology services, is IANZ accredited, I respectfully request ALL of the documentation submitted to IANZ for accreditation by your DHB (or contracted agencies) be made publicly available upon your DHB website (or as a link to your contracted agencies website). Again, while this may appear to be a daunting task on the face of it, this information ought to be in electronic form and have been collated prior to submission to IANZ. Thus, again, my request ought to be accomplished by a click of a button or at most, a few lines of code to link the website to the appropriate folder on your internal systems.

I make these request in order to save time, energy and financial resources. By making the requested information publicly available, the DHB will not need to spend valuable time and resources in answering repeated requests for policies, protocols and best practice documentation, and will help your DHB become compliant with Ministry of Health Standards (such as HISO 10064 and 10029) and legislative requirements, such as those described in the Health Information Privacy Code 1994, Health Act 1956, and Health and Disability Commissioner (Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights) Regulations 1996.

Please note I have made this request to every NZ DHB.

Yours faithfully,

Amy S Van Wey Lovatt

Dear Ministry of Health,

I appologize for inadvertently adding your organization to my OIA request to the NZ DHB's. I would like to modify my request.

According to NZ legislation, and in particular the Health Information Privacy Code and the Health and Disability commissioner (code of health and disability services consumers' rights) regulations 1996, all DHB's and physicians must provide patients with information regarding how their health information will be used and who will have access. Further, a number of standards from the MoH and IANZ require DHB's have policies on protection of health information. Unfortunately, I have found that the DHB's are not publishing their policies regarding patients health information.

Request 1:
Would you please provide me with the MoH's requirements for DHBs in regards to publication of and access by the public to DHB policies regarding access to and protection of their health information.

Request 2:
I respectfully request that the MoH make a formal declaration to all DHB's that they must publish ALL of their policies, protocols and best practice documents on their websites, as well as all accreditation documentation.

As mentioned in my email to the DHB's, this may on the face of it seem like a time consuming task. However, given that the documents are available on their intranet, compliance would only require changing the setting from private to public. Thus, this ought to take seconds to accomplish.

Yours faithfully,

Amy S Van Wey Lovatt