About data collection

The Ministry of Health receives data from different parts of the health sector through the utilisation of health services or mandatory reporting national collections, and also from national population health surveys.

Information requirements, unable to be derived from regular collections, are prioritised and addressed through ongoing population health surveys.

Who produces and maintains the data?

  • Information Services responds to data requests and publish information from the National Collections
  • Health & Disability Intelligence (HDI) produces and maintains the data from the New Zealand Health Surveys
  • Environmental Science & Research (ESR)  produces and maintains data on infectious diseases.

How is the data prepared and used?

This data is cleaned, aggregated and analysed to produce statistics and evidence which is then used by key stakeholders (eg, Ministry of Health, District Health Boards, other Government agencies, national and international researchers, the corporate sector, clinicians and the World Health Organization) to inform policies and decisions regarding current and future health services, for example:

  • policy interventions
  • funding decisions
  • epidemiological research
  • programme evaluations.

Ministry of Health data cycle

The data generation, production and use process is illustrated in the diagram below:

In this section

  • The Ministry collects data to monitor the health of New Zealanders, manage services and subsidies, inform policy decisions, meet legislative requirements, and more. Read more
  • The Ministry uses both established administrative systems and population-based health surveys to gather data. Read more
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