NEW ZEALAND HEALTH INFORMATION SERVICE
Data and services available
General Medical Subsidy Collection (GMS)
The General Medical Subsidy Data Warehouse (GMS) is used by Ministry of Health analysts and DHBs to monitor contracts with providers, support the forecasting and setting of annual budgets, analyse health needs and assess policy effectiveness.
Further information is available here.
Health workforce information
The Health Workforce Data Collection consists of 13 stand-alone databases of annual survey information for each of New Zealand’s registered health professions: doctors, nurses, dentists, chiropractors, medical laboratory technologists, medical radiation technologists, optometrists, dispensing opticians, psychologists, occupational therapists, dietitians, podiatrists and physiotherapists.
Hepatitis B Screening Programme (Hep B)
The Hepatitis B data warehouse was established for the Hepatitis B Screening Programme pilot to support policy formation, performance monitoring, and review. The pilot has been conducted for three years with two primary care providers, and has now been extended to capture secondary care data.
Further information is available here.
Laboratory Claims Collection (Labs)
The Laboratory Claims Collection allows the Ministry of Health and DHBs to monitor the primary-care test subsidies.
Further information is available here.
Maternity and Newborn Collection (MNIS)
The Maternity and Newborn Collection provides information relating to maternity and newborn services up to nine months before and three months after a birth.
Further information is available here.
Medical Warnings System (MWS)
The Medical Warnings System is a value-added service closely aligned with the National Health Index. It is designed to warn healthcare providers of the presence of any known risk factors that may be important when making clinical decisions about patient care.
Further information is available here.
Mental Health Information Collection (MHDW)
The Mental Health Information Collection was established to enable NZHIS information analysts to carry out reporting and ad hoc queries independently of the monthly validation and updating processes taking place in the MHINC database. It is a high-level national database that allows the Ministry of Health to manipulate and report data to monitor the implementation of the national mental health strategy, and provides data extracts for research into the provision of mental health services.
Further information is available here.
Mental Health Information National Collection (MHINC)
The Mental Health Information National Collection is a national database of information on secondary mental health and alcohol & drug services purchased by the government. It is collected by the Ministry of Health to support policy formation, monitoring, and research.
Further information is available here.
Mortality Collection
The Mortality Collection has been established to provide data for public health research, policy formulation, development and monitoring, and cancer survival studies. A complete data set of each year’s mortality data is sent to the World Health Organization each year to be used in international comparisons of mortality statistics.
Further information is available here.
National Booking Reporting System (NBRS)
The National Booking Reporting System provides information by health speciality and booking status on how many patients are waiting for treatment, their assigned priority, their booking status and also how long they have been waiting.
Further information is available here.
National Booking Reporting System Data Warehouse (NBRS DW)
The National Booking Reporting System Data Warehouse was established to consolidate information from the NBRS inpatient database, summary statistics, and cost weighted discharge information from the NMDS and HealthPAC. This consolidated view of the data supports the monthly production of Elective Services Performance Indicator (ESPI) reports and ad hoc queries.
Further information is available here.
National Health Index (NHI)
The National Health Index is the cornerstone of health information in New Zealand. It was established to provide a mechanism for uniquely identifying every healthcare user by assigning each a unique number (known as the NHI number).
Further information is available here.
National Immunisation Collection (NIR)
The National Immunisation Collection has been established to provide data for monitoring immunisation coverage and the progress of immunisation campaigns such as Meningococcal B. This collection also supplies the Safety Monitoring Report for the Meningococcal B campaign.
Further information is available here.
National Minimum Dataset (Hospital Events) (NMDS)
The National Minimum Dataset is used for policy formation, performance monitoring, research and review. It provides statistical information, reports, and analyses about the trends in the delivery of hospital inpatient and day patient health services both nationally and on a provider basis.
Further information is available here.
National Non-admitted Patient Collection (NNPAC)
NNPAC provides national consistent data on non admitted patient (outpatient and emergency department) activity. Its primary use will be for the calculation of Inter District Flows (IDFs) but may also help provide information to measure health outcomes and inform decisions on funding allocations and policy.
Further information is available here.
New Zealand Cancer Registry (NZCR)
The New Zealand Cancer Registry is a population-based register of all primary malignant diseases diagnosed in New Zealand, excluding squamous cell and basal cell skin cancers. Data is used in research, and in monitoring and evaluating cancer screening programmes.
Further information is available here.
Pharmaceutical Collection (Pharms)
The Pharmceutical Collection is a data warehouse that supports the management of pharmaceutical subsidies. It is jointly owned by the Ministry of Health and Pharmac.
Further information is available here.
Primary Health Organisation Enrolment Collection (PHO)
The PHO Enrolment Collection provides a national collection that holds Primary Healthcare System patient enrolment data. It is used for monitoring patient enrolment and for research.
Further information is available here.
Obtaining access to information
Data published by NZHIS
NZHIS publishes reports of statistics based on data from the national collections. These publications are:
Data not previously published
Specific information, not normally available within NZHIS publications, can also be provided. These requests are categorised as ‘customised’ requests that require additional data from the NZHIS databases.
Cost
Most requests incur a charge. Details of this charge can be obtained by contacting the Analytical Services section of NZHIS, with the specification of the information required.
Data access policy
For more detailed information, the Current Data Access Policy document contains details of the data available and the ways in which access can be obtained.
Other services
Assistance with interpretation of results of analyses
On occasions, the analysis of time-series or other data produces unexpected results. We encourage clients to contact us in these instances to discuss possible explanations. Unexpected results can often be explained by changes in classification or collection procedures. Analytical Services staff are available to canvass the accumulated knowledge of NZHIS and other groups within the Ministry to seek explanations.
Consultancy and advice
The staff of NZHIS are also available to work with and assist clients in the process of interpreting and analysing their data, through to providing assistance with the development of information systems. As an example, we can provide assistance in the monitoring of Māori mental-health inpatient admissions, or the development of an information system to manage health data for iwi and hapū.
Legislation pertaining to NZHIS
- There are nine major pieces of legislation that have a direct bearing on the work of NZHIS. They are:
- New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000
- Health Act 1956
- Privacy Act 1993
- Health Information Privacy Code 1994
- Health (Retention of Health Information) Regulations 1996
- Official Information Act 1982
- Cancer Registry Act 1993
- Cancer Registry Regulations 1994
- Public Records Act 2005.
The Health Act 1956 gives the Ministry of Health the function of improving, promoting and protecting public health. It contains specific provisions in section 22 governing the disclosure of health information about identifiable individuals by and between health service providers and other agencies with statutory functions.
The Privacy Act 1993 provides the general framework for promoting and protecting individual privacy. It does so by establishing certain principles with respect to the collection, use, disclosure of and access to information relating to individuals. It applies to public and private sector agencies. It also established the role of Privacy Commissioner to investigate complaints about interferences with individual privacy.
The Health Information Privacy Code 1994 is a Code of Practice issued by the Privacy Commissioner under section 46 of the Privacy Act which gives extra protection to health information because of its sensitivity. It covers all health agencies, and protects all personal health information relating to an identifiable individual. The Ministry has a responsibility to ensure it complies with this Code in respect of all health information entrusted to it.
The Health (Retention of Health Information) Regulations 1996 were introduced to set a minimum period of 10 years for which health information has to be held by health or disability service providers. It also covers the form in which health information is to be retained and the obligations associated with the transferring of health information, for example, when a service provider ceases business. (See also the Public Records Act 2005 below.)
The Official Information Act 1982 was established to make official information more freely available. Its relevance is when a request for information held by NZHIS is from someone who is not the subject of the information or their personal representative. This is treated as a request under Part II of the Act and is subject to the principle of availability under section 5, and should be made available unless good reason for withholding exists. (The detailed considerations taken into account are set out in the Data Access Policy.)
The Cancer Registry Act 1993 and Cancer Registry Regulations 1994 were introduced because of the under-reporting of primary cancers in New Zealand. This limited the use of the data collection in research and in monitoring and evaluating cancer prevention and control programmes. Since 1994, with the onus on the person in charge of each laboratory to report primary cancers, the number of pathology reports sighted and actioned by the Cancer Registry has greatly increased . As a result, the quality, completeness and credibility of the national cancer database have improved significantly. Section 4 of the Act requires the Director-General of Health to maintain or arrange for the maintenance of a Cancer Registry. The Cancer Registry Regulations stipulate the details of the reports that need to be provided to the Director-General for this Registry.
The Public Records Act 2005 provides, inter alia, a comprehensive framework for the systematic creation and preservation of public archives and local authority archives. In particular it gives the Chief Archivist, who is also the Chief Executive of Archives New Zealand, powers of direction with respect to archiving and disposal decisions over health information held by the public sector.
How to contact us
The contact point for clients requiring publications, seeking information held in the NZHIS databases, or wishing to discuss their needs for consultancy and advice is the Analytical Services section. We can be reached by e-mail data-enquiries@moh.govt.nz, telephone (04) 496 2000, or fax (04) 496 2340. We also welcome general enquiries about information and services offered by NZHIS.