CHENNAI: Duplication of emergency requests by the family members of Covid-19 patients for oxygen and ICU beds has put officials handling the 104 control room in a fix. They said this was leading to major delays in attending to requests.
At least 10 per cent of the requests made to 104 helplines for Covid-19 emergency have duplication, officials claimed. The 104 helpline has so far received 48,915 requests for emergency help; of this, about 5,000 were duplications, they said.
“One can register an emergency request three ways: By directly calling the 104, filling a form, or making a request on Twitter. When, however, relatives register a request using all the three modes, it causes delays in the filtering of requests,” said Dr Viduthalai Virumbi, Health and IT Nodal officer, State war room.
Multiple relatives of the same patient make requests from different phone numbers, official added.
“This is another form of duplication. We cannot ignore any new phone number. We determine uniqueness of calls by attending them one by one,” Dr Viduthalai added. According to the SOS-request-data shared with Express, a 65-year-old patient made four requests for beds to the 104 at four different times during the day and through two different modes. He also filled the form twice and called and made requests for help twice.
In another example, a 42-year-old patient made two requests at different times during the day. “Some patients, for getting a bed, claim that their SpO2 rate is 80 when it is actually above 90. When, however, they go to a hospital, they are triaged there. And non-eligible patients don’t get a bed,” he said.
Officials claimed to have found duplication even in social media requests.
The helpline, however, takes all the requests and scrutinizes them, despite the risk of losing time. The officials asked public to make only one request with accurate details. “104 will return to the request in an hour. People need not make multiple requests,” the doctor said.
What patients can do
The first time a patient or kin request 104 for help, they will get a reference ID. "They must produce this ID when they call again. This way, they can also get an update of their request status and prevent repetition," says Dr Viduthalai. Patients should also report accurate SpO2 levels, he added.