JOIN USInfosys, CII call centres to help home-isolated Covid-19 patients in Karnataka
The Karnataka government, which drew flak from Covid-19 patients under home isolation for failing to provide them with medical consultation, will henceforth be assisted by BPO executives of IT major Infosys and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
In less than two days, 1,000 call centre employees will interact with home-isolated patients both in Bengaluru and other parts of the state and periodically inquire about their health condition.
Admitting to lapses in attending to and providing medical consultation to such patients, Health Minister K Sudhakar said, “Out of the 2,81,000 active cases, about 28,000 (10%) are in hospital. More than 2.5 lakh are under home isolation. But there are only a few people at our call centres and it would be unimaginable to call up such a huge number of patients. But this will be resolved in a few days. Krish Gopalakrishnan of Infosys has agreed to provide us with 1,000 people to operate call centres; the CII would also help us with manpower.”
Sources in the health department further said that doctors will be available through these call centres and home-isolated patients can report their symptoms or problems. “Each patient will be called at least once in a day by the call centres and they will guide them medically,” an official explained.
Sudhakar said these panel of doctors will recommend patients for admission if they have severe symptoms. “Admission is strongly discouraged for those with saturation level above 90 or 91. This will be the hallmark of Covid management if we are able to isolate and cure about 90% patients under home isolation, as it had been done in the UK.”
The health department and the BBMP, in consultation with the e-governance department, will add additional 500 lines and deploy 1,500 executives in three shifts to call up home-isolated patients.
Free treatment for 'Covid syndrome' patients
With a rise in the number of people who test negative for RT-PCR but report Covid symptoms and falling oxygen levels, the government has directed all hospitals to provide them free treatment. “They have been categorised as Covid syndrome patients,” Health Minister Sudhakar said.