The three district health boards (DHBs) serving the Auckland region are making electronic referrals into their hospitals and health services mandatory from March next year, doing away with faxed and mailed referral letters from GPs, specialists and community allied health providers.

The DHBs – Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waitemata, which together service around 1.5 million people – have been using the CareConnect system from HealthLink for GP referrals for a number of years. More than 95 per cent of GPs referring to the three DHBs use the eReferral system, which is branded as CareConnect in Auckland but is also used by other DHBs in the North Island.