Thank you for contacting the Ministry of Health GIPA inbox. 

This email address is for GIPA Act (Government Information (Public Access)
Act 2009) related enquiries only. If your enquiry is for other than a GIPA
application, please note the following:

Medical and Health Records 

The NSW Ministry of Health does not hold medical records or health
information for individuals. There is also no central database for medical
records across NSW. 

For information relating to your health or medical records, please contact
the Local Health District, Specialty Health Network or other health
service where you or your family received care.  Contact details for all
NSW Health service are provided on [1]this section of the NSW Health
webpage. Please re-direct all enquiries and application forms for medical
or health information to the relevant local health district/s.
 

Other Non-GIPA NSW Health enquiries 

For all non- GIPA Act related enquiries, or if you would like to provide
feedback, please follow this link to the [2]NSW Health feedback webpage. 

For all GIPA related enquiries, we will attend to your message as soon as
possible.    

Thank you 

NSW Ministry of Health GIPA Team 

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References

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2. https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Pages/feed...
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Pages/feed...

Dear Ms Grant

Thank you for your email to the NSW Ministry of Health in relation to your
informal request as below.

Following internal consultations with the Mental Health Branch (MHB)
within the Ministry, the following advice has been provided and approved
by the Executive Director in response to your request.

The Mental Health Branch (MHB) does not hold this information. Exactly
which medications CTO consumers are on is not held centrally and would be
difficult to pull together at a local health district (LHD) / specialty
health network (SHN) level. Medications are funded by the Commonwealth
(PBS), and in rare circumstances LHDs or Networks may cover costs short
term (e.g. for a non-resident patient without a Medicare card).

CTOs generally do specify treatment by medication at the time of the
order, but the clinical team is not bound by this. The MHB are not sure if
these records are kept by the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) as they
are a separate agency to Ministry. You will need to contact them directly
to make further enquiries.

Additionally, please refer to the below responses to your enquiry:

 a. The statistics for drugs prescribed under CTOs, for example, the
number of people prescribed a particular drug each year under the
conditions of a CTO, is not held by the Ministry. You may refer this
enquiry directly to the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT).
 b. Medications are funded by the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Benefits
Scheme (PBS) and in rare circumstances Local Health Districts (LHDs)
may cover costs short term (e.g. for a non-resident patient without a
Medicare card).

Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) would be the most common
pathway for subsidised medicines for Medicare eligibles.

There are only very limited exemptions for Medicare ineligibles to access
subsidised medicines via Local Health Districts (LHDs). These only relate
to certain infectious diseases for communicable disease control e.g. TB,
leprosy, and HIV (via PBS S100 being administered by the LHDs) – and
humanitarian refugees (who are assessed as otherwise qualified for
Medicare – whilst waiting for their applications to be processed).

 c. The Ministry does not have any information relevant to fundings as
these are funded by the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
(PBS).

We trust this information is of assistance to you.

Thank you.

Kind regards

NSW Ministry of Health GIPA Team 

Corporate Governance and Risk Management Unit (CGRM)

Legal and Regulatory Services Branch (LRS)

NSW Ministry of Health - 1 Reserve Road, St Leonards NSW 2065

[1][NSW Ministry of Health request email]
[2]www.health.nsw.gov.au

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and pay respects to
Elders past and present. We also acknowledge all the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander staff working with NSW Government at this time.

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