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.  

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. 

Designed with the health sector

The AIR is being designed to improve equity across providers by removing digital barriers to vaccination. It will support the entire health sector to deliver better immunisation services.  

By providing a better understanding of population vaccination rates, the AIR will allow those planning health services to deliver them in a more equitable way. This will help ensure that groups most at risk have the best access to appropriate vaccinations.   

The AIR is being co-designed with health providers and the vaccinating workforce. Drawing on collective experience and altering the AIR in response to insights means we can make sure the system works for all users. There has been a strong emphasis on engaging with Māori and Pacific health providers who provide vaccinations, and we worked with a small group of Māori providers to pilot the AIR vaccinator portal.  

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.

How and where have we engaged

The AIR programme has been engaging with immunisation providers, the vaccinating workforce, Te Whatu Ora teams, industry bodies and software vendors.  

We regularly attend a variety of sector hui to share updates. We also run a series of workshops that allows us to collect insights, and test design concepts with end users.   

Information for general practice

From 9 November 2022, general practices have started to receive notifications whenever any of their enrolled patients have received an MMR vaccination (as captured in the AIR vaccinator portal).

This was extended to include notifications of Tdap vaccinations from 30 November 2022.

General practices that use an electronic patient management system (PMS) connected to the NIR will continue to record vaccinations in their PMS.

There is no expectation that they adopt the AIR vaccinator portal. We are working with your PMS software vendors to connect your system to the AIR. 

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.    

AIR admin contacts for GPs

Please find the contact details of your local AIR administrator listed below.  

Te Tai Tokerau Northland 

nir@northlanddhb.org.nz 

Te Toka Tumai Auckland 

nir@adhb.govt.nz 

0800 929 999 

Waitematā  

nir@waitematadhb.govt.nz 

0800 929 999 

Counties Manukau 

kidslink@middlemore.co.nz 

0800 454 375 or 09 259 6994 

Waikato 

nir_coordinators@waikatodhb.health.nz 

0800 100 273 option 1 

Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty 

imms@bopdhb.govt.nz 

0800 829 002 

Te Matau a Māui Hawke’s Bay 

nirhb@hbdhb.govt.nz 

0800 729 100 

Te Pae Hauora o Ruahine o Tararua MidCentral 

NIR.OIS@midcentraldhb.govt.nz 

06 350 4566 or 06 350 4568 

Tairāwhiti 

06 869 2092 ext. 8732 or 0800 935 524 

 

Lakes 

NIRTeam@lakesdhb.govt.nz

027 223 2406

Taranaki 

TDHB.RegionalScreeningTeam@tdhb.org.nz  

06 753 7702 

Whanganui 

nir@wdhb.org.nz  

Wairarapa 

nir@tuora.org.nz   

06 261 8316 

Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley 

nir@tuora.org.nz   

04 886 5020 or 04 260 6611 

RES-NIR@huttvalleydhb.org.nz 

04 570 9797 

Nelson-Marlborough 

programme.support@nmdhb.govt.nz 

03 543 7912 

Waitaha Canterbury/South Canterbury 

nircanterbury@cdhb.health.nz 

03 337 8928 or 03 337 8966 

Southern 

To be confirmed 

Te Tai o Poutini West Coast 

nirwestcoast@wcdhb.health.nz 

03 769 7532 or 03 769 7464 

Can GPs use the AIR vaccinator portal?

Yes, a GP can use the AIR vaccinator portal. Please contact AIR.engagement@health.govt.nz  

Please note: 

  • You will be able to view vaccination history available in the AIR, CIR and NIR 
  • You will only receive notifications to your PMS for your enrolled patients 
  • Your current claiming method remains the same, as AIR does not handle claims 

Helpdesk information

Use the link here to access the AIR Service desk portal or call 0800 855 066 (press *4 and then *1).

Information for pharmacy

Pharmacies can commence onboarding to the AIR. The AIR will replace the use of ImmuniseNow from Q1 2023.

Please refer to the AIR toolkit to sign-up.

To further explore what these changes mean for the pharmacy sector please follow the link to watch the recent pharmacy sector webinar here. 

Please email air.engagement@health.govt.nz to start your sign-up journey as a facility manager. 

Information for Māori and Pacific Health Providers

We will be looking to onboard Māori and Pacific Health providers as a priority group in preparation for the 2023 flu season.

Beginning in February, Māori and Pacific Health providers will be invited to begin signing up to use the AIR.

Please refer to the AIR toolkit to sign-up.

For more information, or if you have any questions, please contact air.engagement@health.govt.nz  

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 February 2023 in a staged approach, with a priority for Māori and Pacific Providers first 

Providers who provide flu vaccinations begin signing up to use the AIR in February in preparation for the 2023 flu season. Please refer to the AIR toolkit to sign-up.

Information for health software vendors

The AIR solution is designed to be future proofed through being aligned to the HIRA architecture and leverage existing capability. 

We will start integrating the AIR and other digital health systems during phase four. The AIR sector integration team is looking at different options with software vendor groups to develop the connections. 

Software vendors we are working with include GP patient management systems (PMS), pharmacy dispensing systems, hospital patient administration systems (PAS) and other provider systems.  

For more information on software vendor integration, email air.engagement@health.govt.nz  

Get in touch

We value your thoughts and feedback about AIR.

To contact the AIR Programme, email air.engagement@health.govt.nz