Waitematā District Health Board's charity arm the Well Foundation has launched a new charitable initiative to provide patients with serious health conditions with remote monitoring technology to reduce their need to visit hospital and potentially expose themselves to the coronavirus.

The program could see up to 100 patients with long-term health issues such as diabetes, respiratory and heart conditions receive equipment to monitor their heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and blood oxygen level at home. They will be shown how to enter their data into mobile devices to be shared with and monitored remotely by their hospital care team.