By Lee Scanlon of 
The Buller health centre Te Rau Kawakawa, which opened in Westport in May 2023. The new building replaced the former Buller Hospital and is intended to enable the expansion of the range of primary care services across the wider Buller District. Photo: Supplied
Health New Zealand West Coast has revealed it is investigating the death of a Filipino man at Westport's acute stabilisation unit (hospital) last month.
Responding to questions submitted by The News under the Official Information Act, Health New Zealand West Coast associate group director, operations, Philip Wheble, said: "The Serious Incident Review Committee is undertaking an investigation and it is not appropriate to discuss this matter while the circumstances of the situation are reviewed."
Wheble reiterated Health New Zealand West Coast's previous comments that the hospital was "fully staffed and operating as usual" between 5pm and midnight on 17 July.
It had been closed the previous two nights.
Wheble again refused to explain why Hato Hone St John Ambulance and Westport firefighters were called to the hospital about 6pm on 17 July.
Police later confirmed a Filipino man in his 40s had been taken to the hospital and subsequently died. They said the death was not suspicious.
Wheble refused to detail the hospital's staffing that night, to say whether any doctors were on site or on call, or to confirm the Filipino man had visited the hospital earlier that day.
Wheble cited personal privacy, protecting confidential information in the public interest, and allowing the free and frank expression of opinions, as the reasons for withholding the information.
"We have considered whether the public interest in releasing the information outweighs the need to protect the privacy of individual patients and have determined that it does not."
- This story was first published by Westport News.
