Covid-19 Immunisation Register ready for use

eHealthNews.nz: Covid-19

Tuesday, 16 February 2021

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NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The first iteration of the National Immunisation Solution (NIS) is built and ready to use when vaccinations against Covid-19 begin on Saturday.

A Ministry of Health spokesperson says work is well underway to develop a comprehensive national solution, however the immediate focus is to successfully support the roll out of the Covid-19 immunisation programme.

The initial system, called the Covid-19 Immunisation Register, is ready to use.

“During the year it will be further developed to support all vaccinations and become the NIS and replace the existing National Immunisation Register (NIR),” the spokesperson says.

The Ministry has begun training vaccinators to use the system for the first batch of vaccinations for border workers.

The government announced last August that it was investing $23 million to develop the NIS to support the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out as the NIR could not cope with the scale and complexity of a mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign.

The new solution leverages the National Screening Solution (NSS) platform, built on Salesforce and other technologies.

At a press conference on February 10, Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins said once the new solution is implemented, “any authorised health worker around the country will be able to record vaccinations in the system anywhere anytime”.

The new system will also enable people to prove vaccination for Covid-19 and confirm someone's vaccination history.

“Over time, our goal is to enable members of the public to be able to digitally access their own vaccination records and the immunisation solution has been built with that in mind,” said Hipkins.

The Ministry spokesperson says the NIS will match data to people’s National Health Index numbers.

“Using NHI numbers and directly inputting information at the place of vaccination, instead of using paper forms, will ensure accurate matching of individuals and their records,” the spokesperson says.

“Part of the vaccine process will involve vaccinators being trained to issue new NHI numbers to those who don’t already have them.”

As the Covid-19 immunisation programme progresses, MoH plans to link the NIS to GP patient management systems.

The Ministry of Health is also developing an inventory management system for Covid-19 vaccines, which will hold information about where the vaccines are located, as well as volumes and temperature.