Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora media enquiries

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora aims to respond to all media enquiries in an open and timely manner.

Please direct all media enquiries here.

Media should submit questions, including a reasonable deadline expectation. The team will acknowledge receipt of the questions, and indicate if it can meet the response deadline. Media should be aware that the appropriate member of staff may not be immediately available due to patient facing commitments and Health NZ has a number of approval layers before a response can be returned.

Verbal interviews may not always be able to be arranged.

Media visiting Health NZ Whanganui

Media must have permission from Health NZ communications team before conducting interviews with staff or patients, filming or taking photographic images at either Whanganui Hospital or any other Health NZ facilities. Depending on the current visitor policy, the Communications Team will liaise with the patient and staff to obtain consent for interviews and ensure there is a suitable location for this to be conducted.

We want to ensure media, patient and organisational needs are balanced and so please let us know your needs in advance. If your plan includes photography of a patient, family or a staff member at one of our hospitals, we can obtain photo consent on your behalf in advance. This will avoid delays. In group situations, a member of the Communications Team will be on hand to let you know which patients you can photograph.

• In consideration of the rights to confidentiality of our patients, their families and our staff, the Communications Team will confirm all recording and interviews on hospital property.
• Patient or parental permission alone is insufficient consent. Clinicians have the right to override that consent taking into consideration patient safety, privacy for other patients and other factors such as infection control risks and staff concerns.
• The Communications Team will advise on staff commitments, treatment schedules and requirements for infection control and arrange a mutually convenient time and location for your interview.

The Communications Team will help guide media on campus, this includes interviewing a staff member off premises in a work capacity.

Patient status updates

We have introduced a privacy waiver policy to ensure that we are putting the patient at the centre of any decision making when disclosing information about them to the media. 

Where media representatives request information held by Health NZ about an individual patient’s care or treatment, we adhere to the principles outlined in rule 11 of the Health Information Privacy Code (HIPC) and section 9(2)(a) of the OIA. 

Please note, while the HIPC authorises disclosure of patient status updates, this is not a mandatory requirement and Health NZ is not obligated to provide comment on, disclose information or express an opinion about an individual patient’s care to the media. 

These decisions are often made on a case-by-case basis and can involve local clinical leadership, our Legal and Privacy teams. This includes deciding whether to rely on a privacy waiver as a basis for sharing this type of personal information.

Patient status terminology and definitions

• Stable: condition unchanged
• Serious, but stable: vital signs stable, within normal limits, patient conscious and comfortable, indicators favourable.
• Serious: vital signs stable and within normal limits, patient conscious but may be uncomfortable, indicators questionable.
• Critical: Vital signs unstable, not within normal limits, patient may not be conscious, indicators unfavourable.

Confirmation of a patient's death occurs only with family consent and after notifying next of kin. Sometimes we will refer you to the police media liaison officer rather than comment ourselves.