Enrolment in a primary health organisation (PHO) is voluntary. Most New Zealanders are however enrolled through their general practice and gain the benefits associated with belonging to a PHO, which can include cheaper doctors’ visits and reduced costs of prescription medicines.
Enrolment information for the public
Most general practices are now part of a PHO. If you are not sure whether your general practice is part of a PHO, you can ask your regular doctor or practice nurse.
To enrol, you will have to complete and sign a form which the doctor, nurse or medical centre receptionist will give you. The form will require you to provide some personal details such as name, age, date of birth, address and ethnicity. The information collected at enrolment is subject to the Privacy Act 2020 and the Health Information Privacy Code 2020, so the privacy of your information is protected.
Enrolment demographics
Information is available on the number of people who are enrolled in a PHO and the demographic details of enrolees by PHO, Lead DHB and DHB of Domicile.
Download the latest pivot table of PHO Enrolment Demographics as at January 2022 (xlsx, 1MB).
As of December 2021 we have removed the filter variable ‘Age’ from all published versions of this spreadsheet. The ‘Reporting Age Band’ filter has been enhanced. For further information on the change please refer to the Notes page in the latest version of the spreadsheet.
Previous PHO Enrolment Demographic tables
Tables are available monthly from April 2019. Monthly tables for the current financial year are listed individually. Monthly tables for prior financial years are collected in the relevant workbooks.
- PHO Enrolment Demographics as at November 2021 (xlsx, 1 MB)
- PHO Enrolment Demographics as at October 2021 (xlsx, 1 MB)
- PHO Enrolment Demographics as at September 2021 (xlsx, 1 MB)
- PHO Enrolment Demographics as at August 2021 (xlsx, 1 MB)
- PHO Enrolment Demographics as at July 2021 (xlsx, 1 MB)
- PHO Enrolment Demographics July 2020 to June 2021 (xlsx, 11.4 MB)
- PHO Enrolment Demographics July 2019 to June 2020 (xlsx, 10.7 MB)
- PHO Enrolment Demographics April 2019 to June 2019 (xlsx, 2.7 MB)
Access to primary care
The table below shows the estimated percentage of the total population who are enrolled in a PHO by ethnicity as at January 2022.
| Māori | Pacific | Other | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | 734,065 |
345,304 |
3,737,864 |
4,817,233 |
| Percentage |
83% |
97% |
96% |
94% |
The estimated coverage for the Pacific population is sometimes slightly more than 100% as the underlying population comes from Stats NZ population projections and the enrolment number comes from the primary care data collection. Detailed information on the number and percentage of the total population who are enrolled in a PHO for each of the 20 district health boards can be found in the spreadsheets below. The information is presented by ethnicity, deprivation, gender and age group for each quarter since April 2019.
Note that updated population projections were used in the calculation of the January 2022 and January 2021 statistics. The updated projections use the latest subnational population estimates and updated methodology to calculate migration. The combined impact is a variation in projected population for some DHBs when compared to releases prior to January 2021.
- Access to Primary Care as at January 2022 (xls, 41KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at October 2021 (xls, 40 KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at July 2021 (xls, 3 MB)
- Access to Primary Care as at April 2021 (xls, 40 KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at January 2021 (xls, 46 KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at October 2020 (xls, 46 KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at July 2020 (xlsx, 46 KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at April 2020 (xlsx, 40 KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at January 2020 (xlsx, 40 KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at October 2019 (xlsx, 39 KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at July 2019 (xlsx, 39 KB)
- Access to Primary Care as at April 2019 (xlsx, 40 KB)
Enrolment rules and guidelines
The document Enrolment Requirements for Contracted Providers and PHOs (on the TAS website) outlines the enrolment parameters for PHOs, including operational policies and requirements.