Answer on time DHBs warned
WELLINGTON: State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has directed some district health boards to urgently improve how they deal with requests for official information.
Public agencies received 23,733 requests in the first half of the year and responded to about 93.5% of them within the 20 working days deadline.
Mr Hughes said that represented a ‘‘disappointing’’ 1.8percentage point decrease on the previous period.
‘‘The latest sixmonthly results are a reminder that we cannot be complacent.
‘‘I am pleased public service departments continue to improve and that more than half of the agencies included achieved 100% timeliness. But we still have work to do,’’ he said.
District health boards (DHBs) tended to be the worst performers.
Hutt Valley DHB responded to only 68.8% of its requests on time and Tairawhiti DHB to only 71.2%.
Counties Manakau DHB replied within deadline 77.8% of the time.
Auckland DHB and Bay of Plenty DHB were only slightly better, meeting the deadline with 79.7% and 82.9% of requests, respectively.
The Southern DHB told the Health Select Committee, in response to questions on its annual report, that in 201617 it received 222 OIA requests.
Of those, 158 were responded to within 20 working days — a 71% success rate.
A further 64 were responded to after 20 days — including requests for an extension of time to answer.
Of the remainder, 12 were transferred, 4 were fully withheld, and 29 were partly withheld.
Mr Hughes has written to directorgeneral of health Ashley Bloomfield and asked him to speak to the relevant board chairmen.
‘‘A number of DHBs are not performing as well as I expect and they need to urgently put some focus on this,’’ he said.
‘‘In particular, I am disappointed that the positive results achieved in the previous six months by some DHBs have not been maintained or improved . . . We need to see greater focus and improvement here.’’
Mr Hughes stressed agencies were legally required to respond to requests within deadline.
‘‘It’s not an aspirational target.’’ He noted the strong performance of NelsonMarlborough, Wairarapa and Waitemata DHBs who all maintained 100% timeliness for the past 12 months.