Help needed to get vaccine pass

People in South Canterbury are lining up to get help to download vaccine passes, as frustration builds for those who do not use the internet or are unable to get through on the phone system.

The Ministry of Health says it is working on system changes to ease congestion.

My Vaccine Pass is the official record of someone’s vaccine status and will be required to enter certain events and venues from 11.59pm on December 2 when the country changes from the alert level system to the traffic light system. The pass process can be completed online or by calling an 0800 number and receiving a hard copy in the mail.

Waimate Community Link operations manager Jakki Guildford said six people were queuing outside the support and information centre before it opened on Thursday morning, seeking help to navigate the online system for processing and downloading the passes.

She estimated that this week they had dealt with about 20 people a day on the subject.

‘‘We have one person working fulltime doing vaccination support,’’ Guildford said.

‘‘It is mostly older people who struggle to navigate the system. We had the same issues teaching people how to use the QR code, load the app and scan.’’

She said it was about people not being confident or comfortable with the digital systems.

Occasionally people just wanted to use the printer as they did not have one, or ‘‘we created a Gmail address for them, so they could get the pass sent to them and we would download it’’, Guildford said.

‘‘Sometimes it may be the only time they ever use email.’’

Another issue was many older people did not have modern ID, as some no longer had a driver’s licence and their old birth certificates were not accepted, so they had to order a new one which was another obstacle, Guildford said. ‘‘For an ageing population it is intimidating.

‘‘The short time frame to get them has created pressure which is not helping.’’

The other concern was if people could get through on the 0800 phone number, which had been overloaded, they may not receive their hard copy via the post, by the December 3 deadline.

‘‘It has been a huge part of what we have been doing and has taken staff away from other projects. It is not a one-off, there will be pass renewals in six months.’’

From Monday, Timaru district libraries will offer vaccine pass guidance through free sessions which can be booked by phoning the library in Timaru, Geraldine or Temuka.

Timaru Senior Citizens community support co-ordinator Chris Thomas said he had heard of people using the 0800 number and being on hold for an hour, and giving up, which he said was similar for vaccination bookings.

‘‘It has been very frustrating, and the whole process is new and confusing for some people.’’

He said the Ministry of Health was working through a potential system where GPs and pharmacies would possibly be able to download passes for customers.

Ministry of Health group manager of national digital services Michael Dreyer said they had received an unprecedented volume of calls, on average 30,000 calls a day, hence the problems with delays. ‘‘The system changes made overnight on Wednesday have improved the call streaming to support setting up of My Covid Record accounts, getting a vaccine pass and updating people’s National Health Index details.’’

He said by the end of Thursday waiting times were less than 10 minutes for My Vaccine Pass.

‘‘We are working to improve this further today [Friday], with more staff being shifted into the technical support for My Health Account and My Covid Records and hours on the technical lines being extended to 8pm.’’