Advice and Support

The Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights

The Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights 1996 specifies patients’ rights when receiving healthcare services. These are:

Right 1 Right to be treated with respect
Right 2 Right to freedom from discrimination, coercion, harassment and exploitation
Right 3 Right to dignity and independence
Right 4 Right to services of an appropriate standard
Right 5 Right to effective communication
Right 6 Right to be fully informed
Right 7 Right to make an informed choice and give informed consent
Right 8 Right to support
Right 9 Rights in respect of teaching or research
Right 10 Right to complain

Brochures outlining these rights are held in all C&CDHB clinical areas. Further information may be obtained on the Health & Disability Commmissioner's website.

Other Organisations

Wellington Mental Health
Consumers Union Inc

Offer advocacy and support for people who have
or who have had a mental illness

Telephone:
04 801-7769

Advocacy Network Services

(Contracted to the Health and Disability
Commissioner)
Who can discuss your concerns, advocate
and offer advice and support.

Telephone:
04 389 7701 (Wellington)
04 237 0418 (Porirua)
0800 423 638

Atareira
Mental Illness Family
Support

Offer support, education and advocacy for
families of people with any major mental illness.

First Floor
274 Taranaki Street
Wellington City

Telephone:
04 499 1047

Chaplaincy

The chaplains are part of the C&CDHB Hospital team working for the health and spiritual welfare of patients and relatives. They visit wards regularly, but if at any time you would like to see a chaplain, please ask a staff member to call one for you. The chaplains work together and are available for anyone.

Accessing your clinical record

Nobody has the right to immediate access to his or her personal information. You may contact the C&CDHB Privacy Officer (telephone 04 385 5999, or write to P O Box 7902 Wellington South) or ask any staff member.

Complaints regarding Privacy and Access to Information can be made to the Privacy Commissioner (0800 803 909) or to the C&CDHB Privacy Officer.

We have 20 working days to indicate to you if we will action your request. We can refuse your request, but only for very limited reasons which we would explain at the time.

In most cases we should be able to provide you with the information within 20 working days. If your request is urgent please state the reasons why the request is urgent and we will do our best to assist.

Sometimes we may contact you if there is a lot of information available to ensure that we supply what you need. Where there is a lot of information to be provided we may not be able to supply it all within the 20 working days – but we will certainly inform you that we are dealing with your request.

There is no charge for the provision of this information.

Correcting information

If you think that the information we hold is inaccurate, you are entitled to ask for it to be corrected.

Apart from simple factual information (such as your name, date of birth, ethnicity) you may be invited to provide a statement of the correction sought. This statement will be attached to your file.

Accessing another person’s health information

If you wish to access another person’s medical records, we will require that person’s consent before we can release their information to you. Please note that the request form includes a place for the patient's signature to indicate that we are authorised to disclose the information to you. In certain limited circumstances, we may be able to release medical records to a third party without the patient’s consent. For more information contact the C&CDHB Privacy Officer.