Often, a consumer’s first interaction with Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is online. This helps people find the right care sooner, support their own wellbeing, and reduce pressure on clinical services.
There’s also strong demand from health professionals and the wider sector for reliable information. It can be hard to know where to look or where to direct patients.
Health New Zealand are starting a progressive roll out of a single national website – healthnz.govt.nz – bringing together health information for consumers, health professionals, and job seekers.
While the domain name isn’t changing quite yet and will remain ‘info.health.nz’ until around February 2026, significant changes continue, making it easier for consumers, health professionals, and the wider sector to access the information they need.
To make sure the site meets user needs, feedback was gathered directly from consumers and health professionals through structured testing sessions. Their feedback directly shaped the design and content. Web traffic and search patterns were analysed, then prototypes tested to see how users naturally navigate. These insights helped refine the design so people can find what they need quickly and easily.
The new site combines the existing info.health.nz consumer website with the current TeWhatuOra.govt.nz corporate website. The team worked with content owners to review and rewrite material so it’s clinically accurate, accessible, and easy to understand.
Josh Mens, Health New Zealand’s Digital Lead National Platforms, says “info.health.nz works well for consumers, but we needed to improve the experience for health professionals – that work is underway now”.
What’s new?
Simplified access for all users
The new information architecture, shaped by extensive testing with consumers and health professionals, ensures intuitive access to:
‘News’ will take you back to the tewhatuora.govt.nz corporate website for now – ‘News’ will come into the refreshed Health NZ website early in the new year (Launch 2).
What’s next?
A domain name change, to HealthNZ.govt.nz, will align the site more closely with the Health New Zealand brand, reinforcing its identity as a trusted government source.
A ‘new-look’ menu will launch early next year which will help the new structure come to life, and enable us to surface content deeper in the structure as well as linking to popular pages.
News and publications will have a new home by the end of February.
A dedicated experience for health professionals is in development, set to launch in the by the middle of next year.
Work continues to migrate remaining content from the tewhatuora.govt.nz corporate website, creating a single, unified platform.
Trust is growing
Recent consumer testing revealed a strong theme of trust – in both the content and the user experience when using the Health NZ national website.
This trust is further validated by the Health NZ web team winning the Best Plain Language Award for a public sector website. The recognition and success of this project is a reflection of the collaboration between the Health NZ Digital Services and Communications & Engagement teams.
Winner: Best Plain Language Website — Public Sector
