Primary care health data

Accurate, timely, and well managed data flows help ensure people get the care they need, when they need it. In primary care, data flows within primary care itself and outside of a primary care setting. These data flows

• Help people understand their own care.
• Help clinicians access the information that they need to support a persons’ care.
• Allow planners to target investment to improve people's healthcare experiences and health outcomes 
• Provide better coordination of care

Better data not only informs planning and funding decisions, it also underpins clinical care (like sharing patient records between health services), making it easier for providers to coordinate services and support people through different parts of the health system.

• The different data sets and collections, and how they relate to improved care and support planning.
• The different data services that support the secure sharing of patient notes and clinical information between health providers.
• The different data flows and supporting processes.
  
  

Health NZ works with the primary care sector to access data  from primary healthcare settings. This data may be related to a  service that Health NZ funds primary healthcare providers to deliver or it could be data that Health NZ holds on behalf of the person receiving care from Health NZ services, such as hospitals.

Health NZ may use these datasets to help plan services that meet people’s needs, improve the care to people or track investment made by Health NZ in these services.

To enable these datasets, we enter into Information Sharing Agreements (ISAs) with providers, which maybe within contracts for services or separately. These agreements set out what information is shared, how it is shared, for what purpose it is shared, how it is protected, and how this information can be used. This includes use by Health NZ and also use of Health NZ data by others. We are working with PHOs to move to one master ISA to cover all  of these things, with a strong focus on the legal basis for sharing, as well as things such as privacy and security of people's health information.

Alongside performance and planning data, some datasets are also available to researchers, providers, and the public for their own use within strict ethical and other approval processes.

The data sets are supported by the Health NZ data governance group as well as within the various delegated authorities that underpin Health NZs structure.

All data and information sharing activities adhere to relevant legislation, including the Privacy Act, Health Information Privacy Code, and the Official Information Act.

The new National Primary Care Dataset (NPCD)

The government has supported a large increase in capitation funding this year, associated with a greater focus on outcomes and performance.

Achieving this will require robust, nationally consistent data for primary care that supports ongoing monitoring, planning, and service improvement across the health system.

We plan to support this approach with the creation of a National Primary Care Dataset (NPCD). The dataset will start with the information needed to measure and track the new primary care health target, and will expand to additional domains for general practice.

Measures and public reporting

These data sets and collections are used to inform some of the primary care measures and targets we publish information on.

Health targets

The Government has introduced health targets to support the delivery of better health outcomes for New Zealanders and improve the performance of our health services throughout the country. These are published and reported on quarterly.

The below health targets relate directly to primary care.

Childhood Immunisation Target

This aims for 95 percent of children to be fully immunised at 24 months of age by 2030.

Primary Care Health Target

The Government has announced plans to develop a new Primary Care Health Target to improve timely access to general practice from 1 July 2026.

Strengthening primary care to better meet patient needs - Beehive.govt.nz (external link)

This new target will be developed in consultation with the primary care sector and is proposed to ensure that by 2030 more than 80 per cent of people can see a primary care provider within one week. 

• A Primary Care Health Target Advisory Group will include representatives from PHOs and general practice to provide advice on the design and implementation of the health target itself. Its role is to provide advice to Health NZ and the Ministry of Health on how the target is defined and implemented, including the development of balancing measures.
• A Primary Care Dataset Governance Group is being established under the PSAAP process. It has a formal role in overseeing the data framework for the Primary Care National Dataset, including how data is defined, extracted, and reported. The group will include representatives from Health NZ, general practice, PHOs, and patients.
• Implementation will follow a phased approach:
  • Confirm the target definition, governance arrangements and initial data framework.
  • Test and refine reporting, establish the national repository, and prepare for implementation on 1 July 2026.
  • Expand the dataset over time to include a wider set of measures for system improvement.

Primary care performance measures

System Level Measures (SLMs)

The 2025/26 Primary Health Organisation SLM measures include 2yo immunisation and ASH. PHOs develop improvement plans with their community providers to deliver improvements. Funding is made available to PHOs for the planning and improvement activity, as well as performance related to the 2yo immunisation rates.

Primary care indicators

Reported quarterly to reflect how PHOs and practices are supporting their populations. Current indicators include:

• Childhood immunisation (8 and 24 months)
• Smoking cessation support
• General practice enrolment availability (closed books)

Performance capitation

At times, new measures are introduced in response to service needs. For example, in 1 July 2025, up to $30 million in performance-based funding will be available to general practices that improve their 6-week immunisation rates, recognising this as a key milestone for achieving the immunisation health target.

Other data reporting

Another example of the kinds of data we report on is the performance related data and reporting we publish in relation to service delivery, such as how well the new Online GP 24/7 care service is supporting greater access to GP care.

Health NZ is also developing the Shared Digital Health Record (SDHR) data service, which will enable patient information to be shared nationally through shared electronic health records (SEHRs) - like HealthOne and Your Health Summary - and other shared patient record systems. In time, emergency departments, first responders, telehealth & afterhours care, and general practice will have to access to a national dataset of core patient information, no matter where in the country the person seeking care is.

General practices choose whether to participate in the new data services, and individuals will be able to opt off if they choose not to have their information shared. There will be rigorous systems in place to make sure people’s privacy is respected.

In phase one, Health NZ is working with primary care providers who choose to take part, to collect and share read-only versions of core patient data. We are currently undertaking a series of focus groups with general practice, looking at participation, roles and responsibilities, privacy, consent, and control; as well as understanding the support needed to implement the new data sharing service. Engagement with consumers about the service is also underway.

Additionally, HealthOne is carrying out work with PHOs to expand into the lower North Island | Te Ikaroa, along with its current availability in the South Island | Te Waipounamu. HealthOne, like other SEHR service providers, will be able to onboard to the national Shared Digital Health Record data service once it is available later this year/early 2026.

Sometimes the information general practice will share with us for the Shared Digital Health Record will be the same information they have shared with us for our datasets and collections (but the data for datasets and collections will often be anonymised). At the moment that will mean while we might be extracting the same information, there will be two separate data gathering processes.

We are exploring the creation of one, Information Sharing Agreement (ISA) with a series of schedules for the different data purposes.

Over time, we want to work with the sector to explore how the new Primary Care National Dataset could evolve into a single, consistent source of primary care information and supporting data gathering processes.

In the meantime, this is what the data flow process will/look like for the two different purposes:

Primary care health data overview [PDF, 80 KB]