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Ministry of Health

national Health Information Platform (nHIP) – Hira update

A number of vendors submitted responses to the Ministry of Health’s request for information (RFI) in relation to Hira, formerly known as the national Health Information Platform (nHIP). The responses were much appreciated and provided valuable insights, learnings, and input which are helping inform thinking and planning for the next stages. 

In Budget 2021, Government announced contingency funding of up to $385million over four years (and a further $15 million in capital funding in2025/26) for health sector digital infrastructure and capability. The draw down of funding for the implementation of Hira is subject to Cabinet approval of the detailed business cases for each tranche of the programme. 

Hira will transform the way people interact with health services and enable patients and trusted health providers to have secure access to patient information when it’s needed. This will improve the quality of clinical decision-making and help improve health and wellbeing for all New Zealanders. 

Hira tranche 1 will provide access for providers and consumers to important health information. Access to health information will be enabled through multiple channels (websites and apps), including those that improve equity of access to health information and empower consumers and whānau to better manage their health and wellbeing. 

Hira tranche 1 will include access to demographics and detailed information such as a patient’s enrolled general practice, entitlements, medicines, vaccination status, and laboratory test results.  

The detailed business case for Hira tranche 1 is currently under development. At this time, we are not able to advise a timeline for early engagement opportunities or market requests, but we will update vendors as soon as we are in a position to do so.

More information about Hira is available on the Ministry of Health website.

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