Health Act 1956

Administration - Personal information

22F: Communication of information for diagnostic and other purposes

You could also call this:

"Getting to see your own health information"

When you want to see your health information, you can ask the person who holds it to show it to you. You can also ask someone else, like a family member, to ask for you. The person who holds your health information must show it to you, unless they have a good reason not to. They might not show it to you if they think you do not want them to, or if a code of practice says they do not have to, like the one issued under section 32 of the Privacy Act 2020. If they say no, you can complain to the Privacy Commissioner under Part 5 of the Privacy Act 2020.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on 24 May 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM306662.

22E: Duty to provide information for purposes of blood collection, or

"The government can ask for health information to help with blood collection and must say how to share it."

22G: Inspection of records, or

"Who can look at your health records?"

Part 1Administration
Personal information

22FCommunication of information for diagnostic and other purposes

Every person who holds health information of any kind shall, at the request of the individual about whom the information is held, or a representative of that individual, or any other person that is providing, or is to provide, services to that individual, disclose that information to that individual or, as the case requires, to that representative or to that other person.
A person that holds health information may refuse to disclose that information under this section if—
that person has a lawful excuse for not disclosing that information; or
where the information is requested by someone other than the individual about whom it is held (not being a representative of that individual), the holder of the information has reasonable grounds for believing that that individual does not wish the information to be disclosed; or
refusal is authorised by a code of practice issued under section 32 of the Privacy Act 2020.

For the purposes of subsection (2)(a), neither—
the fact that any payment due to the holder of any information or to any other person has not been made; nor
the need to avoid prejudice to the commercial position of the holder of any information or of any other person; nor
the fact that disclosure is not permitted under any of the information privacy principles set out in section 22 of the Privacy Act 2020—

Where any person refuses to disclose health information in response to a request made under this section, the person whose request is refused may make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner under Part 5 of the Privacy Act 2020, and that Part of that Act, so far as applicable and with all necessary modifications, shall apply in relation to that complaint as if the refusal to which the complaint relates were a refusal to make information available in response to an information privacy request within the meaning of that Act.
Nothing in subsection (4) limits any other remedy that is available to any person who is aggrieved by any refusal to disclose information under this section.

Notes

Section 22F: replaced, on 1 July 1993, by section 2 of the Health Amendment Act (No 2) 1993 (1993 No 32).
Section 22F(1): amended, on 1 January 2001, by section 111(1) of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 (2000 No 91).
Section 22F(2)(c): amended, on 1 December 2020, by section 217 of the Privacy Act 2020 (2020 No 31).
Section 22F(3)(c): amended, on 1 December 2020, by section 217 of the Privacy Act 2020 (2020 No 31).
Section 22F(4): amended, on 1 December 2020, by section 217 of the Privacy Act 2020 (2020 No 31).