15 June 2026

Health NZ refused my OIA by admitting the information doesn’t exist

BY NIGEL GRAY 15 JUNE 2026

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I asked Health New Zealand a very simple, very important question:

What training do clinicians receive on:

I also made the request as narrow as possible:

“If no such training or documents exist, please confirm this explicitly.”

That’s it.
A binary question.
Either the documents exist, or they don’t.

They told me:

“Health NZ has not identified any nationally delivered training programmes or materials…”

So the training does not exist.

But instead of simply confirming that — which is all I asked — they refused the entire request under section 18(f) (“substantial collation”).

This makes no sense.

You can’t claim:

That’s not how the Official Information Act works.

Clinicians are legally required to meet:

Yet Health NZ has now confirmed:

…on medication‑induced nutrient depletion, immune system fundamentals, or nutritional support during withdrawal.

These are basic, foundational areas of patient safety.

And instead of acknowledging the gap, they tried to bury it behind a refusal that contradicts their own admission.

I’ve lodged a formal complaint with the Ombudsman.

The refusal is:

This isn’t about one request — it’s about a systemic failure in clinical governance and patient safety.

Because the public deserves to know when a health system:

Transparency matters.
Patient safety matters.
And this issue isn’t going away.