Where does data harvesting idea sit on scale of stupidity?

YOU could say our relationship is abusive. If I am honest, I am the one doing the abusing. Honesty is the issue, really.

They cower under the bed, poised to speak to me of excesses ignored.

They are talking scales, without any scintillating patter.

They only say ‘‘Error!’’ if I plonk myself on them in the wrong place and ‘‘Please step off!’’ when they are ready to deliver the good/bad news. There is no ‘‘Get off, you fat cow! A kilogram more than yesterday. Good grief!’’ or ‘‘You are half a kilogram lighter today. Yay!’’

Sometimes, just to test my waning arithmetic, they suddenly convert my weight to pounds. It is alarming, not the least because I cannot pass the intelligence test on how to make them revert to kilograms. I sheepishly resort to removing the battery and fingercrossing.

My abuse has a ritual. It must be first thing in the morning, clothesfree (frightening, just to think of the worm’s eye view of the saggybagginess of it), and bladder empty. My theory is this is when I am at my lightest.

Some anxiety about my weight has been with me since teenage. Slim when I went to boarding school, I managed to pile on at least a stone (6.35kg) every year I was there, tipping the scales at a podgy thighsrubbingtogether 80kg when I left. It is likely I got even heavier, but I avoided scales for several years after that.

I am amazed to find that at

80kg, the Ministry of Health’s Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator would class me as a slightly unhealthy weight. Other online calculators would see me as overweight with a high risk of obesity related diseases.

I dropped more than 10kg in my early 20s and, apart from pregnancies, and despite my nutty weighing ritual, I think my BMI has probably been mostly OK since.

Including weight as part of the information held against our individual health identifier, the NHI (National Health Index), is one of the 16 possible changes being considered by those in the Ministry of Health who dream up such things.

The NHI number is used so health providers know they have the correct person when they are providing services.

At this point, an NHI number should have name, address, date of birth (and death if that’s relevant), gender, residency and ethnicity recorded against it.

Some of the 16 suggestions are pretty clearcut, such as extending the numbering system. (Good to know, incidentally, that the new range would reduce the potential for issuing numbers containing offensive expressions.)

But others, such as weight recording, seem less so.

The rationale behind collecting height and weight seems to be that the changes in individuals over time might provide better information about where future health spending should be.

‘‘Weight is also important for the correct dosing of some medications; ready access to a recent weight may be useful in some emergency situations for correct dosing.’’

Possibly. But what if the person hasn’t darkened the door of their GP for years? Are all GPs’ scales reliable? Whose scales can cope with the extremely obese?

Including sexual orientation is another possible change, with the argument that accurately collecting statistical data on the rainbow community could help government agencies’ work to address equity issues. Any change would be undertaken using the fabulously named NCAMP (National Collections Annual Maintenance Programme).

Another possibility is disability status, established by asking you six questions. Again, the purpose of this would be to get better data on disability across the country with the aim of improving services.

At this stage, the Ministry is only seeking comment to see if the ideas should proceed at a ‘‘concept level’’ and what priority the various proposals should receive.

This attempt at early input might be laudable, but I doubt many people will have seen its consultation document (submissions close on August 22), unheralded on the Ministry website and found only when you click on consultations in the small print at the bottom.

There needs to be a much wider discussion about whether any of us are comfortable with the NHI being used as a data gathering machine, how accurate and secure any data might be and exactly how it would work .

Would my GP be expected to weigh me, ask me if I am still heterosexual and go through the six disability questions, and a plethora of other things, on my infrequent visits to him?

Would this be the best use of our time?

Recent glitches in the bowel screening pilot showed the NHI struggles to keep addresses current. Maybe the Ministry should put its weight behind getting the existing basics right before doing anything extra.