133 Molesworth Street PO Box 5013 Wellington 6140 New Zealand T+64 4 496 2000
3 March 2022
Tēnā koe COVID-19 Care in the Community: Telephone and Video Interpreting Service The Ministry of Health is pleased to provide new funding for 24/7 telephone and video interpreter services. This service will support people and their whānau who are confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases and will be provided through ezispeak. The service is available for general practices, community pharmacies, Kaupapa Māori and Pacific providers, and community NGO providers. It is intended to support COVID19 related communication with people who have language barriers, through the use of telephone and video interpreters. This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in over 180 languages. The full list of languages provided can be found here. This service is fully funded by the Ministry. There are no charges to providers or patients who choose to access the service. We expect most services will be via telephone and we have provided telephone user guides for: •
General practices (including Kaupapa Māori and Pacific practices)
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Community pharmacies
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Community NGO providers (including Kaupapa Māori and Pacific providers)
We ask that you share the user guide and accompanying PIN codes with your providers to print off and utilise. Each region and provider type has a unique PIN number to enable access. It is important that your providers use the correct PIN code for their region and provider type. This will help with reporting and informing future decisions for this service outside of COVID-19. Telephone services are provided on-demand, and prior bookings are not required for most situations. Calls will generally be connected to a qualified interpreter within 30-60 seconds, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Pre-bookings are only required for rare or emerging languages and dialects and for appointments anticipated to last over two hours. Pre-bookings, if required, can be completed online.
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