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Govt's online patient portal going strong
Fri, 4th Mar 2016
FYI, this story is more than a year old

The Government's patient portal initiative is working well, with more than 100,000 New Zealanders signed up, according to Health Minister Jonathan Coleman.

Patient portals are secure online sites which give Kiwis access to their health information. The portals and information are 24/7.

“The portal site enables patients to manage aspects of their own healthcare, such as booking appointments, requesting repeat prescriptions and messaging clinical staff directly,” Coleman says.

“In addition to giving patients more control over their own healthcare, patient portals reduce the time general practice staff spend on administrative tasks.

“Both the patients and health workforce using the portals describe them as being convenient, user friendly and a real time saver,” he adds.

In the last quarter of 2015, the number of registered portal users jumped from 93,000 in September to 107,034 in December.

More general practices are now offering a patient portal service, with 277 practices with a portal service, up from 271 in September 2015.

Coleman last year approved a $3 million funding boost to give more New Zealanders access to patient portals, including $500,000 for an awareness campaign.

For more information on patient portals can be found here.