May 14, 2016 2:00pm by David Farrar

Patient Portals

Jonathan Coleman announced:

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman is encouraging people to use a new online map to see whether their GP offers a patient portal.

“A growing number of general practices are introducing patient portals. These secure online sites are the health equivalent to online banking,” says Dr Coleman.

“Portals enable patients to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions and view lab test results online.

“You can have secure conversations with your GP via email, and in some cases, patients can also view their notes online.

“Portals are convenient, secure and real time savers for both the patient and staff at their general practice.

“A new interactive map launched today makes it easy for patients to check which general practices are offering portals. Patient portals are a great step towards enabling New Zealanders to manage more of their own healthcare.”

Over 330 general practices are now offering patient portals, with nearly 136,000 New Zealanders registered to use one.

The map is here.

You can quickly see which medical centres in Wellington City have a patient portal. They are:

Island Bay Medical Centre
Peninsula Medical Centre
Newtown Medical Centre
Newtown Union Health Service
Brooklyn Central Health
Brooklyn Medical Centre
Karori Medical Centre
Capital Care Medical Centre
Evolve Wellington
City GPs
Kelburn Medical Centre
The Terrace Medical Centre
Onslow Medical Centre
Johnsonville Medical Centre
Newlands Medical Centre

I’ve been using Manage My Health for a couple of years and find it great. The main attraction is being able to see which doctors are free when, and book yourself in. But lots of other good features also: