Significant uptick in Covid cert helpline calls

A “decline” in demand for the digital Covid certificate helpline has recently reversed, with approximately 3,700 calls to the service on 10 January. At last September’s meeting of the health budget oversight group, there was a discussion regarding the digital Covid certificate service. The HSE “indicated that associated services in this area are expected to be stood down by the end of October and highlighted that there was a decline in the demand for the helpline services”, according to minutes.

However, a Department of Health spokesperson told the Medical Independent (MI) that the introduction of the booster vaccination campaign has meant that the helpline service would continue. “To support the roll-out of Government policy, a helpline through the digital Covid certificate contact-centre was mobilised by the Department of Health who entered a contract with Accenture in July 2021 based on an estimated fee of €6.5 million relating to an agreed scope, assumptions and estimate volumes,” the spokesperson told MI.

“This service initially established a traditional agent-intensive help-line based service and quickly transitioned to a range of secure self-service digital solutions over a relatively short time, all to resolve queries that the public may have related to their digital Covid certificates. “The digital Covid cert helpline will continue to operate to support the issuing of booster certificates and any changes to primary vaccination and booster certificates. As anticipated, calls to the helpline have increased significantly since booster certificates began to issue on 6 January with approximately 3,700 calls to the service centre on 10 January.”