Patients First Closure

Tēnā koutou

I tenei ra kei a matou etahi korero pouri. Today we have some sad news. From 31 December 2021 Patients First will cease operations and wind-up its business, products, and services.

As a charitable organisation Patients First has supplied technology and interoperability products, services, and expertise to the New Zealand healthcare primary care sector for over 10 years.

Healthcare providers have relied on some of these products, which have helped move the sector forward over that period as well as benefiting patients and providers of healthcare services.

However, with the withdrawal of funding from the Ministry of Health, we are no longer able to provide those services. These include:

–          Technology operations for GP2GP patient transfer, terminology, integration, and interoperability services.

–          A Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) supporting the New Zealand electronic Prescription Service (NZePS), GP2GP and MCIS (maternity).

–          Cybersecurity facilitation.

–          Primary care sector and Practice Management System (PMS) vendor engagement.

To ensure patient welfare is not impacted these services will be transitioned to the Ministry of Health. That transition is planned to occur by 17 December 2021.

We greatly appreciate the support you have all given over our 10 years, and we’ve enjoyed being part of a sector that is and will undergo extensive change in the next few years.

We especially thank our people, past and present, for all they’ve given to Patients First in support of New Zealand’s healthcare sector.

If you have any questions please contact Mark Corbitt at [email protected] or on 021 281 4444.

Kia arotahi to tatou heke mai ki te tangata. May our future be focused on people.