National Covid vaccination booking system live at pilot sites

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

A national booking system for Covid-19 vaccinations is being piloted in Auckland and Canterbury and will be available nationwide by July.

The Ministry of Health is using Skedulo, a scheduling plug-in app for Salesforce, which is the platform of the national Covid-19 Immunisation Register and National Contact Tracing Solution.

A Ministry of Health spokesperson says the system is being piloted at vaccination sites in Ōtara and Manurewa in the Auckland Region and Christchurch is trialling it at their Kaikōura site. 

“We expect it will be available nationwide by July,” the spokesperson says.
 
“The system will support the Covid-19 vaccination programme as it ramps up in the second half of the year, and as we begin vaccinating the general population.”

Nearly 500,000 vaccinations have been administered nationwide so far.
 
The national online booking system will allow DHBs and other health providers to load their appointment times and locations centrally, and enable customers to register and book a spot. 

The spokesperson says UK experience indicates that a national booking system is very effective for large scale vaccination events and dedicated community hubs. 
 
The National Booking System is not replacing current booking systems used in General Practice for routine consultations, including Covid-19 vaccinations when these are available through GPs.

At a media conference on April 15, deputy director general data and digital Shayne Hunter said the cloud-based booking system would be able to deal with thousands of people accessing it simultaneously.

The Ministry has also developed an inventory management system and vaccine safety monitoring system to help manage the roll-out of the vaccination programme.

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