Who are Health Passports for?
Anyone with a long-term condition or disability, who has support needs, could benefit from using a Health Passport.
This has information about your health that belongs to you. You choose to write in it what you want a health professional to know about you. Examples could be how you want to be communicated with, or what gives you anxiety.
Using this tool means you don’t have to repeat yourself all the time and have a way of communicating with staff when you might not be able to.
About Health Passports
A Health Passport is a nationwide communication tool that you can carry with you when attending hospitals or other providers of health and disability services.
The Health and Disability Commissioner is working with the three District Health Boards (DHBs) in our region (Capital & Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa) to integrate the Health Passport into our hospitals.
Healthcare professionals can read it to find out everything you want them to know.
Read more about the Health Passport on the Health and Disability Commissioner's website.
Getting the most out of your Health Passport:
- Complete it as soon as you receive it (don't wait until you have to visit a hospital).
- Keep it safely with your other medical records (with your medical file or other records that you may take to a hospital).
- Remember to take it with you every time you visit a hospital.
- Inform reception staff that you have a Health Passport when you go to a hospital.
- Keep your Health Passport close to your bed at all times when in the hospital.
- Remind all hospital staff who work with you to read the Passport.
- Remember to take your Passport with you when you return home.
Completing your Health Passport
If you need help completing the passport, ask your support person or a member of your family. Fill in as much or as little as you like – not all the information may apply to you. The Health Passport is your tool to communicate your expert knowledge to others.
Contact us
To find out more or request a Health Passport:
Phone 0800 DISABILITY (0800 347 224 5489)
Email SRDAG@sidu.org.nz
