Media Release

12 March 2013

Smart Connectivity: Ultra-Fast Broadband Provider Selected for Primary Health Care

General Practice New Zealand (GPNZ) is delighted to announce that it is partnering with award-winning telecommunications provider Snap to implement a range of Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) based services to general practices and primary care networks across New Zealand. The services will be available to GPNZ networks and their affiliated general practices with the intention of offering the services to the wider health community from mid 2013.

The Smart Connectivity service will start to become available from April 2013. Smart Connectivity will offer health providers a range of internet, hosted telephony and video services at competitive prices. UFB will be available locally when the fibre optic infrastructure is installed as part of the Governments $1.5 billion investment in UFB that is being governed by Crown Fibre Holdings. A key driver of the programme is the development of a network of shared services and information, encouraging improved collaboration between a number of different health entities.

The implementation of UFB will be a significant enabler for implementation of new services supporting integration across a range of health providers said Dr Richard Medlicott, who was part of the evaluation team.

The Snap service will be launched under the Smart Connectivity brand of the Patients First programme that delivered the very succesful GP2GP Electronic File Transfer tool.

Snap has many years experience in providing services in the New Zealand health sector, supporting a number of District Health Boards and primary care networks. Snap has gained an enviable reputation by offering innovative, leading edge solutions that embrace new technologies, such as corporate fibre, VDSL, and now UFB fibre services said Fiona Thomson, CEO at GPNZ.

The health sector is a priority for Snaps UFB rollout. Our aim is to improve access to information and encourage the use of common systems across multiple health providers. Improved connectivity will allow centralised solutions to be embraced for more effective and effcient patient care, reducing the costs and burdens of legacy systems and technology, but also ensuring that New Zealand continues to deliver a world class healthcare service. Snap is incredibly excited to bring its UFB-based Smart Connectivity suite of services to the health sector with GPNZ and its member networks said Mark Petrie, CEO at Snap.

UFB services are now available in initial suburbs in over 20 cities and towns nationwide, and our partners are actively prioritising health facilities such as general practices in deployment, said Graham Mitchell, CEO of Crown Fibre Holdings, the company established by the Government to manage its investment in UFB. So its fantastic to see a leading industry group such as GPNZ encouraging their members to take advantage of UFB. Id like to congratulate Snap on winning the opportunity to help make this happen.

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GPNZ/Snap: UFB Provider Selected for Primary Health Care