Bhubaneswar: The 104 helpline service, which has proved to be a lifesaver for many anxious patients during the pandemic, continues to be marred by hoax calls.
The call centre management, however, has little option in this regard. At a time when the pandemic is surging in the state, each call has to be treated like an emergency.
“We have issued instructions to our employees to take each call as an emergency call. We are receiving up to 500 hoax calls per day which comprise abusive pranks and hoax calls which divert our resources unnecessarily,” said Sabyasachi Biswal, state head, Ziqitza Healthcare, which manages 108, 102 and 104 helpline numbers in the state.
The agency has even lodged police complaints in this regard. Cops have also taken action against many such callers too. The 104 helpline is operational since July 2019. It was earlier used for grievance redressal and seeking health advice to identify, classify, register, escalate and track complaints/grievances. It was however diverted to be used as a COVID Helpline from March.
The call centre has now increased its capacity and even allowed the employees to work from home for those living in containment zones and high burden areas. The service provider, however, claimed that the load on 108 ambulances in the state had gone up by 25 per cent in March 2020 but in July, the calls seeking its services have come down.
“The load on 108 and 102 Ambulance had gone up by about 25% post March 2020. This was primarily because of complete dependency of the citizens on the state-run Ambulance service due to lockdown. However, calls for ambulance has come down in July 2020 due to the introduction of Tele-Medicine facilities at most District Head-quarter Hospitals,” he said.
The 108 Ambulance service has refrained from transporting COVID patients. The service provider said all suspected and COVID positive patients are taken through special ambulances positioned at all Block Headquarters. “As an ambulance needs to be sanitised and kept out of service for 24 hours after carrying a COVID patient, we are avoiding carrying such cases in 108 or 102 Ambulance,” he said.
Manish Kumar, OP
