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About AIR

The AIR is used to help control the spread of infectious diseases by: 

  • providing information about immunisation coverage across the population 
  • keeping a record of the vaccinations New Zealanders have received or chosen not to receive.  

Watch our latest Pharmacy Hui to find out more.

Why we need AIR

Over their lifetime, New Zealanders can receive vaccinations from a range of health providers. At the moment, health providers can’t always get a full picture of a person’s vaccination history to help them and the consumer make the best health decisions. 

The AIR will provide an accurate understanding of population immunisation coverage rates. This means programmes can be planned better to support populations with the lowest immunisation rates.  

The AIR will reduce digital barriers and support the health sector to deliver better immunisation services. 

The AIR will also give New Zealanders a way to record and track immunisations they have received and are entitled to. 

Benefits of AIR

Because immunisation healthcare providers will be able to access immunisation health records, they can make better decisions about whether a person should or should not receive a vaccination.  

We can quickly and efficiently update the health sector about changes to the National Immunisation Schedule. 

The AIR is being co-designed with health providers with a strong emphasis on Māori and Pacific providers and is incorporating learning from their collective experience. The project will be business and health sector led and technology enabled. 

The health sector will have opportunities to use more accurate aggregate-level vaccination data to understand vaccine uptake and make decisions to address inequities in vaccination rates. 

How AIR will be delivered

The AIR is being delivered in phases. During phase one, we focused on improving the capacity of the system to understand population coverage (with an emphasis on influenza). This phase is complete.

We are now completing phase two, building all the key components that are required to support the future state of the AIR, while co-existing with the NIR and Covid Immunisation Register (CIR). We can complete phase three when we are able to disestablish these legacy systems.

During phase four we will look for opportunities for AIR to add additional value to support immunisation services.

Sign up to use AIR

We have developed a new facility manager role to support providers to manage their health workforce’s access to the AIR. Please see the video below explaining the facility manager role.  The sign-up form for facility managers and all other pharmacy users will be available from Mid-November. 

We will email users of the CIR and ImmuniseNow with more information.

If you have been given access to AIR and are having issues with the sign-up process please email, help@imms.min.health.nz

If you have a question not related to onboarding to AIR please email air.engagement@health.govt.nz  

Video transcript

The Aotearoa Immunisation Register is being developed to replace the aging National Immunisation Register (NIR) and will supersede the COVID-19 Immunisation Register (CIR).

 

In AIR there will be a range of roles that users can adopt in the system. One of the newly created roles is a Facility Manager. This video will explain What is a Facility Manager role in AIR? Why do we have this role? Who is a Facility Manager? How do you become a Facility Manager? What is a Facility Manager role in AIR?

 

As a provider you will be able to manage who is able to use the AIR at your site. A facility is a single site where vaccinations are provided. A Facility Manager will be able to search for authenticated AIR users in the system and assign them to their site and unassign them when a user no longer works at your site. For example, you will be able to find and approve a new vaccinator to vaccinate at your site if they have completed identification and authorisation.

 

Why do I want to have a Facility Manager at my site?

We want you to have the flexibility and security to manage your own users, on demand. We hope this speeds up administrative access to systems that the vaccinator workforce needs to vaccinate at your site.  An example of this is often seen during the Flu season where you may have additional workers coming into assist you, as a Facility Manager you will be able to connect them to your site and then when they are no longer employed by you, you will be able to remove them from your site. The user will retain access to any other sites they may work in.

 

Who is a Facility Manager?

Facility Managers will be a responsible representative of a site whose role is to confirm that people are employed or contracted by the organisation to complete the work on their behalf at that site. This could be (but not limited to) a Pharmacy Manager, Nurse Lead, or an Organisational / Workforce Administrator or the business owner. The role of Facility Manager will be responsible for ensuring the AIR user is employed or contracted by the organisation at that site to complete the work on their behalf.

When AIR users are signed up and authenticated a Facility Manager will be able to search for them in AIR and authorise them to work at their site. They will also be able to unassign users from their site when they no longer are working at that site.

 

How do I become a Facility Manager?

All AIR users will need to go through a registration, identification authentication and authorisation, including Facility Managers.  To start, you will need to agree who is best placed to fulfil the Facility Manager role at a particular site.

You may choose to identify more than one Facility Manager in order to cover instances where individuals may be on leave. Once decided you will start your onboarding journey by signing up and completing authentication and authorisation.

 

What if I don’t have anyone to perform this role?

As part of the AIR support for facilities without this manager role, this role can be fulfilled by the AIR admin support team.  However, please get in touch with us so that we can understand your needs and assistance requirements at AIR.engagement@govt.nz

Thank you for watching this video introducing Facility Managers in AIR

 

Information for general practice in phase two

GP notifications

From 9 November 2022, general practice will start to receive notifications whenever any of their enrolled patients have received an MMR vaccination (as captured in the AIR vaccinator portal). To confirm a patient’s MMR vaccination status before this date, contact your regional AIR Admin (formerly NIR Admin) or the helpdesk. 

NIR status queries from your PMS

Vaccinations recorded in the AIR will not be included when a status query is requested via your Patient Management System (PMS) to NIR. To get a person’s full vaccination records, we encourage you to contact our online helpdesk or your regional AIR Admin (formerly NIR Admin). Once the GP notification system is set up, you will only need to contact the AIR Admin or the helpdesk for casual or non-enrolled consumers.  

Helpdesk information

Email onlinehelpdesk@health.govt.nz or call 0800 855 066 (press *4 and then *1). 

Information for pharmacies transition off ImmuniseNow

Pharmacies will soon be able to use the Aotearoa Immunisation Register (AIR). This will replace ImmuniseNow from mid-December 2022.

Information for other health practitioners

Other parts of the immunisation sector, including community providers, occupational health and public health units, will be invited to start using the AIR from December. More information will be available soon. 

Get in touch

We value your thoughts and feedback about AIR. To contact the AIR Programme, email air.engagement@health.govt.nz