Bhubaneswar: Fake callers continue to disrupt emergency 108 and 102 ambulance services in the state with its call centre registering 7 per cent fake calls every day on an average, a manager of the contact centre said.
According to the manager, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, the centre receives about 10,000 calls a day on an average out of which as many as 700 calls turn out to be fake and prank calls.
Back in 2013, with the assistance from the central government, 108 ambulance facility was first introduced in the state to make free ambulance service available to the needy people. Ziqitza HealthCare Limited, a private business, operates the call centre with its control room at IDCO tower in Bhubaneswar.
Sources in Ziqitza said, calls for 108 and 102 ambulance services land at the IDCO tower control room and from there the required type of ambulance is instructed to move to the location to pick up the patient.
That said, the centre is receiving large numbers of fake calls hampering the availability of contact lines and also affecting the service to a great extent – especially when ambulance service is requested for no genuine reason.
These calls land mostly between 7:00am and 3:00pm. To be precise, during the time when women operators are around to answer calls.
“The pranksters often dial the toll free number in an attempt to befriend the female employees. They also go on to lodge fake complaints, request ambulance for no reason, and at times they call only to abuse the staff answering the calls. We have been requested to send ambulance for ailing bulls,” the manager rues while citing how needy patients often miss out on availing the service owing to such mischief.
Seconding the manager, a staff of 108 control room says these calls are part and parcel of their routine. “We often urge the callers not disrupt the emergency lines for no reason. If fake call from the same number is repeated, we flag and block incoming calls from that number,” the employee added.
In may be noted here that a prankster once gained notoriety for calling 108 service over 3000 times.
PNN