Need a dedicated vaccine helpline, say Mumbai doctors working across COVID-19 war rooms

An official from P South ward war room said many people don’t know that the NESCO centre in its jurisdiction is closed on Sunday and end up visiting it. Pic/Satej Shinde

Doctors working across COVID-19 war rooms in the city are demanding a dedicated, centralised helpline solely for vaccination-related queries to help reduce frivolous enquiries and free up phone lines for people in search of beds, oxygen cylinders and/or ambulances. The war rooms have to field hundreds of vaccine-related queries daily.

Ward war rooms have limited information such as vaccination centres' names and contact numbers and the period between two doses. File pic

Dr Hemant Thakur, who is in charge of the P South war room, said, "There needs to be a separate helpline for vaccination-related queries and doubts. Patients who are running out of oxygen need beds urgently. But we are busy fielding silly queries regarding vaccination. People call the war room asking if they can have a bath with cold water if they have taken Covaxin. If the war room phones are busy handling these queries, we won't be able to help those trying to connect with us urgently."

Thakur pointed out that as of now, there is no centralised helpline for vaccination-related queries. "At the very least, different helpline numbers should be launched for each of the jumbo centres where vaccination drives are taking place. People don't even know that the NESCO centre in P South is closed for vaccination on Sundays. Because of this, so many people land up here on Sundays, hoping to get vaccinated. If there's a helpline, people can call there first and enquire instead of coming all the way to a closed centre. The war room does not know which vaccinations are available where and how much stock of vaccine is left at which centre. People have to call the vaccination centres directly for this information."

Dr Ishan Thakkar, in charge of the war room at R Central ward, said, "A helpline connected to all vaccination centres is important to update the availability of stock and keep a record of vaccinations at the end of every day. Each ward has a different vaccination set-up. My war room receives around 2,000-2,500 calls every day, of which 500 are regarding vaccination queries. Except for the names and contact numbers of vaccination centres in our ward and the ideal gap between two doses (45-65 days), we don't have any role in vaccination-related queries. Even if there is no dedicated centralised helpline, each war room should at least have a separate landline number solely for vaccination-related queries."

500
No. of calls that come daily that are vaccine-related