Covid-19: Telecounselling services at patients’ beck and call in Chennai – Times of India

CHENNAI: It was 2 pm on Thursday afternoon and the 10 corporation staff at the Covid-19 telecounselling centre (zone 8) in Anna Nagar were busy calling patients and enquiring about their health conditions. In one of the calls, an aged patient was speaking frantically and said she had severe symptoms and needed immediate medical attention.
In no-time, Mothis Kumar, a corporation doctor who heads the centre, took the call and referred a Covid-19 ambulance, along with a doctor, to the patient’s house. The patient was safely ferried to the nearby Covid care centre.
In many such cases, the tele-counselling centres in the corporation have come to the rescue of patients in need. They have made 1.51 lakh calls since the first week of January when the centres were set up after the Covid cases began surging. More than 100 symptomatic patients have been shifted to health centres and were followed up.
Armed with 21 doctors and 140 telecallers, these centres make 30,000 calls a day lately. Dr Mothis Kumar said their duty began at 9 am in a day. “We get the list of new positive patients in the morning in addition to those who’re already in quarantine. The telecallers phone the patients twice a day to check if they exhibit symptoms and to learn about their essential needs,” he said.
When the patients don’t attend the call, their details are immediately shared with the concerned sanitary inspector. “After verifying the patient’s condition, the officer updates it in our WhatsApp group,” he said.
Jeevankumar Shankar, the floor manager of the tele-counselling centre in zone 5 (Royapuram), said his job was, apart from monitoring the work of the staff, to collate the data on the daily calls, symptoms of patients, discharge details and declaration of wrong phone numbers. “The data is collated and sent to the health officers, who forward it to Ripon Buildings. It is finally reviewed by the commissioner,” he added.
In some instances, the tele-callers have caught home-quarantine violators and those who play mischief by giving wrong numbers. Dr Mothis Kumar said a positive patient was found to be travelling to his farm-house without informing the corporation. Similarly, Jeevankumar said an RGGGH nurse had given the wrong phone number – 90000 00000.
Corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said the centres came in handy in zones where the virus spread is high. “Apart from offering medical help, these centres offer counselling to stressed patients. I review their works on a daily basis,” he said, adding that they played a crucial role in the city’s Covid management.