Telehealth service opens virtual doors to care - Ardern

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Whakarongorau Aotearoa, NZ Telehealth Services, is removing barriers to care through use of technology with the goal of achieving equity of access for all, says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Speaking at the opening of the organisations’s new Auckland offices and contact centre on April 9, Ardern said Whakarongorau Aotearoa has “made it it’s mission to open virtual doors as wide as possible and ensure every door is linked to wellness”.

Ardern said the new office has capacity for 225 frontline staff to help New Zealanders when they need it most. Nationwide the team includes more than 1000 people with around 230 working from home.

She said the government’s aim is to enable all New Zealanders to live long healthy lives and to do that they have form partnerships.

“Your service is an example of that approach in action,” she said. “This is the first nationwide service platform co-designed by the people who use it.”

Ardern said around 11,000 people provided feedback on the design of the telehealth platform last year.
“Digital technology has long been part of our lives, but increasingly it’s part of our health services and through Covid-19 health services moved quickly to digital platforms,” she said.

Whakarongorau Aotearoa (previously Homecare Medical) responded to more than 1.3 million contacts in the year ending 30 June 2020, an increase of 45 percent on the previous year.

The organisation scaled its cloud-based telehealth service to move its workforce to work from home and deal with a peak of 15,000 calls in one day during the Covid-19 crisis.

Partners at the event included Ngāpuhi, who worked with Whakarongorau Aotearoa to stand up a contact centre and have 40 Māori staff now using the telehealth platform, to work from Kaikohe discussing the Covid-19 vaccine and arranging bookings. 

Picture: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking at the opening of Whakarongorau Aotearoa