Healthline

Healthline provides a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over-the-phone health service you can call for free health advice, information and treatment from professional healthcare providers.

Call Healthline

Get expert health advice

Healthline offers health advice from professional healthcare providers.

Healthline is staffed by an experienced, trained team who have worked in many different places and roles— including nurses, paramedics, health advisors and doctors.

Call Healthline:

  • for advice about your situation and next steps
  • if you do not have a GP or cannot get to one
  • if you need advice about medicine
  • if you are worried or unsure about your health or someone else's health.

What happens when you call Healthline

When you call Healthline they will ask you about the condition, illness or question you are calling about. They may ask you to send them a picture or a video of what you have called about to help them understand.

They can assess your symptoms and recommend the best thing to do. This could be to:

  • take care of yourself or the person you are ringing about at home
  • talk to a Healthline doctor
  • go to see your regular doctor
  • monitor for symptoms
  • go to emergency care or hospital.

They can help find healthcare services near you for the care you need, for example:

  • an after-hours GP service
  • a hospital emergency department
  • a pharmacy
  • an after out-of-hours dental surgery.

Healthline can connect you with an ambulance service if needed. Ambulances are free in the Wellington region. In the rest of the country, St John charges patients for some types of ambulance call outs.

Ambulance part charges — St John (external link)

  • Interpreters are available — the Healthline team can arrange to talk with you in your language.

    When you call, say you would like an interpreter and the language you would like to speak in.

  • The Healthline team can engage with the NZ Relay Services to support you. NZ Relay Services are only available for limited hours.

    NZ Relay Services

  • If you do not need immediate help, you can request 1 of the Healthline team to call you back.

    You can request a callback now on the healthapp.

    Request a callback — Healthinfo

  • From 8 am to 8 pm you can choose to speak with a Māori clinician.

About Healthline

Healthline is funded by Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora in partnership with Te Aka Whai Ora — The Māori Health Authority. It is provided by Whakarongorau Aotearoa — New Zealand Telehealth Services.

Contact — Whakarongorau Aotearoa (external link)

Your privacy and rights

Callers to telephone advice services have the same rights as other consumers of health services.

Read the Whakarongorau privacy policies on their website.

Privacy — Whakarongorau Aotearoa (external link)

  • Get support for COVID, flu, measles and whooping cough vaccines. Available 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.

    Call: 0800 28 29 26

  • For support for the Disability Community with COVID testing, face mask exemptions, managing COVID at home and any general health concerns.

    A person with experience or knowledge of disability will answer your call 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Outside those times, calls are answered by a trained member of the Healthline team.

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