Nearly half of all general practices in New Zealand are now offering a patient portal but only 400,000 of the country's 4.7 million residents have taken up the technology.

It was initially hoped that the majority of practices would offer a portal by 2014 but that proved too ambitious. Numbers have grown in the last year however, with Health Minister Jonathan Coleman spruiking that 471 general practices out of the estimated 1000 in the country now offer one, up from 335 in June 2016.