{"id":12261,"date":"2022-11-29T15:38:45","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T15:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/?page_id=12261"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:50:31","slug":"telephone-interpreting-service","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/education\/telephone-interpreting-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Telephone Interpreting Service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Arranging Telephone Interpreting (thebigword)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If appropriate, always consider the telephone interpreting service as your first option for non-complex appointments. It is much quicker and easier to arrange as no booking is required (on-demand service), and it also promotes anonymity as the telephone interpreters are very seldom Lothian-based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 hour access to telephone interpreting is provided by thebigword, a national supplier under a UK Government contract<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To access thebigword telephone service:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Connect to the service 033 3344 9473<\/strong>
    (or 0333 344 9470 to speak to an adviser, if you need to request a specific gender)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Enter access code and PIN codes as below: (please note Access Codes have changed as off 1st April 2020)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    88 900 001#<\/td>All hospitals<\/td>NO PIN required<\/td><\/tr>
    88 900 002#<\/td>Community (Home visits, CPN, etc.) <\/td>NO PIN required<\/td><\/tr>
    88 900 003#<\/td>Opticians<\/td>NO PIN required<\/td><\/tr>
    88 900 004#<\/td>Dentists<\/td>PIN required – please use your Practice Code. 
    If unknown, please use 0<\/td><\/tr>
    88 900 005#<\/td>GPs<\/td>PIN required – please use your Practice Code. 
    If unknown, please use 0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
     If none of the access codes above is suitable, please contact staffbank.its@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk<\/a> \/ 0131 536 2020 Option 5.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    3 Enter the <\/strong>language code <\/a>followed by #<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    702<\/td>Albanian<\/td>95<\/td>French<\/td>734<\/td>Lingala<\/td>757<\/td>Somali<\/td><\/tr>
    91<\/td>Amharic<\/td>4<\/td>German<\/td>735<\/td>Lithuanian<\/td>1<\/td>Spanish<\/td><\/tr>
    92<\/td>Arabic<\/td>993<\/td>Greek<\/td>97<\/td>Mandarin<\/td>998<\/td>Swahili<\/td><\/tr>
    727<\/td>Bahasa Indonesian<\/td>738<\/td>Gujarati<\/td>533<\/td>Mirpuri<\/td>762<\/td>Tagalog<\/td><\/tr>
    706<\/td>Bengali<\/td>994<\/td>Hindi<\/td>741<\/td>Nepali<\/td>729<\/td>Tamil<\/td><\/tr>
    17<\/td>Bosnian<\/td>724<\/td>Hungarian<\/td>796<\/td>Oromo<\/td>992<\/td>Thai<\/td><\/tr>
    707<\/td>Bulgarian<\/td>995<\/td>Italian<\/td>98<\/td>Pashto<\/td>773<\/td>Tigrinya<\/td><\/tr>
    93<\/td>Cantonese<\/td>96<\/td>Japanese<\/td>5<\/td>Polish<\/td>764<\/td>Turkish<\/td><\/tr>
    780<\/td>Creole (Haitian)<\/td>3<\/td>Korean<\/td>996<\/td>Portuguese<\/td>709<\/td>Twi<\/td><\/tr>
    710<\/td>Czech<\/td>520<\/td>Kurdish (Kurmanji)<\/td>749<\/td>Punjabi<\/td>765<\/td>Ukrainian<\/td><\/tr>
    713<\/td>Dutch<\/td>730<\/td>Kurdish (Sorani)<\/td>750<\/td>Romanian<\/td>999<\/td>Urdu<\/td><\/tr>
    712<\/td>Farsi (Afghan)<\/td>731<\/td>Kurdish (Bahdini)<\/td>997<\/td>Russian<\/td>2<\/td>Vietnamese<\/td><\/tr>
    94<\/td>Farsi (Persian)<\/td>733<\/td>Latvian<\/td>755<\/td>Slovak<\/td>0<\/td>More Languages<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      2. Setting Up a Three Way Interpreting Call (thebigword):<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    1. Call dedicated free-phone number 033 3344 9473<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Enter eight digit Access Code<\/strong> followed by the #<\/strong> key. Codes can be found above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. Enter PIN followed by the # key.  More info can be found above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. Enter language code you require.  List can be found above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. Once the translator\/interpreter has joined the call, explain what that you are a healthcare professional and are about to phone the patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. When you are ready to bring the patient onto the call press *1 and then dial the patients number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7. When you have finished, you can press *2 to release the patient from the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    8. Pressing *3 will redial the patients number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For more information and advice, see ITS – Top Tips for Remote<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      1. Arranging Telephone Interpreting (thebigword) If appropriate, always consider the telephone interpreting service as your first option for non-complex appointments. It is much quicker and easier to arrange as no booking is required (on-demand service), and it also promotes anonymity as the telephone interpreters are very seldom Lothian-based. 24 hour access to telephone interpreting is provided by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":9354,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1377],"class_list":["post-12261","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-https-apps-nhslothian-scot-refhelp-referral-guide"],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"heatherlevy","author_link":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/author\/heatherlevy\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":" Referral Guide<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"  1. Arranging Telephone Interpreting (thebigword) If appropriate, always consider the telephone interpreting service as your first option for non-complex appointments. It is much quicker and easier to arrange as no booking is required (on-demand service), and it also promotes anonymity as the telephone interpreters are very seldom Lothian-based. 24 hour access to telephone interpreting is provided by","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12261"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26638,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12261\/revisions\/26638"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}