Collins: Heads should roll over report

National leader Judith Collins says heads should ‘‘absolutely’’ roll at the Ministry of Health for a ‘‘sanitised’’ report on mental health.

But Health Minister Andrew Little said he was totally comfortable with the process of the report’s release, and noted there was no legal requirement that it be produced.

Stuff revealed last week the bureaucratic battle behind the release of the 2018 and 2019 Office of the Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services reports, which were finally released together late last month – over a year behind the normal schedule.

The reports, which had been released in roughly the same format for over a decade, had several data points stripped out for 2018 and 2019, including data on wait times, access to services, and suicides – with the ministry arguing these were better suited to other reports.

Emails released to Stuff under the Official Information Act showed a battle between officials at the Ministry of Health, some who wanted the report to be stripped back to its bare essentials, and others who argued it should keep consistent with what had been in previous reports.

The Ministry of Health has said the data was available in other newer reports, although the format of that data was different.

Collins said on her way into caucus yesterday that National would have been put under extraordinary pressure if something like this had happened while it was in Government.

‘‘I’m really absolutely disgusted that the Government has basically stood by a report on mental health which has been sanitised of data that apparently was significantly negative,’’ Collins said.

Asked if heads should roll at the Ministry of Health, Collins replied ‘‘quite clearly – the minister needs to take action on this.’’

National’s mental health spokesman Matt Doocey said there appeared to be some ‘‘politicisation’’ of the ministry, and the minister should instruct it to release a fuller version of the report.

Little told Stuff yesterday morning he was comfortable with the report’s release, noting it was not a report that the Government was legally required to produce.

‘‘There’s some complexity to the numbers that have been reported on and they have been working on trying to make them more accessible,’’ Little said.