Correspondent: Aisha Gomez, the Commonwealth Fund
In 2015, the New Zealand government invested over NZD 3 million to boost access to patient portals. In the past year alone, the number of individuals registering with their general practice’s patient portal doubled. More than 400,000 patients — up from 233,839 in 2016 — signed up to access their medical records, save time on booking appointments, request repeat prescriptions, and more. Patient portals also save practices time spent on administrative tasks, freeing up more time to spend with patients. However, less than half of all general practices currently offer patient portals; Health Minister Jonathan Coleman would like to see more practices adopt them.
