Following the statement in a news release defaming the Total Health Care Otara, Primary Health Organisation’s Executive Officer Mark Vella asked for public apology from Ministry of Health. Vella said that he was very disappointed by the release as it insulted THO by calling it the worst performing PHO for immunization.

Mr. Vella expressed his annoyance in a media release by stating that PHO board and providers are astounding at the imprecision of the ministry's data. He also said that NSDA records evidently prove that they are among top five performers.

He said, “I have reports from the NDSA which clearly shows the figure of 32% is totally incorrect with THO achieving an average of 76% for the year 01-01-09 to 01-01-10”.

Initially aired on the Radio New Zealand, the PHO Performance Programme data was circulated to other media under Officials Information Act.

Dr. Bloomfield, Deputy Director-General of Health, accepted in a written statement that due to technical issues, there has been incorrect reporting of immunization data from THO to the PHO Performance Programme.

Dr. Bloomfield says DHBNZ will continue working with PHOs and will make sure that immunization reports are correctly reported.