SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 22. (EUROPE PRESS) -
The free telephone line for information on the coronavirus 900 112 061, launched by the Government of the Canary Islands to attend to citizens' queries about Covid-19, from general information to possible cases, has answered a total of 61,592 calls between the days March 10 and 20. In the same period, the appointment service of the Canary Health Service (SCS) through 012 registered a total of 199,996 calls. Added to these are another 3,854 general information calls from the Government of the Canary Islands.
The teams of the SCS and the Ministry of Public Administrations, Justice and Security have shown their satisfaction with the good response times of level 1 of telephone attention, which have been reduced to 42 seconds in the first level, with an average speech time of of 03:11 minutes, but they are concerned with improving response times at technical health levels.
This has been explained by the Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security, Julio Pérez, who is committed to resolving the times at level 2 of nursing care, and at 1-1-2, where the conversations are much longer, generating greater timeouts.
In this sense, the general director of Modernization and Quality of Services, Pablo Hernández, has indicated that two new rooms have been set up for telephone attention on the Coronavirus, which will allow more technical personnel to be incorporated in the coming days. At the same time, this will allow more staff to be added to the 1-1-2 rooms.
In addition, work is being done to set up two educational centers as call centers in order to have greater capacity, and the incorporation of psychologist services to meet the needs of the population is being analyzed.
Pablo Hernández has also announced that the 900 line has been reinforced, allowing service in different languages through simultaneous translation, as well as computer systems to allow monitoring and control of calls.
Regarding general information, Hernández added that the documentary staff has been increased to respond to all citizen questions with negotiations with the state government, all the departments of the Canary Executive and the rest of the public administrations.
The director general specified that action is being taken proactively to incorporate all the issues that arise in a matter of hours, making it possible to combat disinformation, and underlines that the 012 telephone information and attention service has been reorganized, and priority has been given to urgent, health and essential services.
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In this sense, he stated that the information related to health, protocols, security, state of alarm, employment, tax agency, tourism and prior appointment has been updated, as well as information for foreigners who are in the Canary Islands, all with the objective to be able to answer any questions related to the current situation.
Tax attention has also been increased, with the Grecasa call center and the Canarian Tax Agency, and the work of the Canarian Employment Service has been intensified with its own attention service.
THREE PHONE NUMBERS.
The telephone call service of the Government of the Canary Islands is currently organized into three services. Number 012, for general government information; 1-1-2, only for emergency calls; and the Info Coronavirus service 900 112 061, for information on the situation of the state of alarm, coronavirus and to report possible cases.
This last Info Coronavirus service contemplates three levels of telephone assistance: level 1, to attend to information; level 2, for nursing triage; and level 3, for testing and monitoring. This protocol, put in place almost a month ago, has made it possible to reduce telephone pressure on 1-1-2, which should only be used for emergencies.
Councilor Julio Pérez highlighted the importance of the Info Coronavirus telephone service 900 112 061, which works 24 hours a day, since, after the health and security services, it is part of the first line of the fight against the coronavirus since it allows citizens to remain informed with reliable data, combating disinformation, attending to their demands and concerns and providing health care.
Pérez has called on all citizens to always inform themselves through official sources, including the phones and the website and social networks of the Government of the Canary Islands, which will continue to transmit information permanently with the utmost rigor and transparency, and asks that the recommendations of the authorities be followed. Likewise, he insists that to make inquiries about the virus you have to call 900 112 061 and that the 1-1-2 telephone service should be used exclusively for emergencies. General inquiries from the Government of the Canary Islands, which these days prioritize health and emergency services, can be directed to 012.
Julio Pérez has also detailed that of the total of almost 270,000 calls received between March 10 and 20, 14,254 corresponded to level 1, of information on the coronavirus; and 20,343 with level 2 (nursing triage); as well as 199,999 prior appointments to the SCS through 012, to which are added another 3,854 that were referred from the 900 line to the 012 telephone information service.
The number of calls is completed with queries for general information, calls with interpretation by language and those called 'not contacted', made by people who hang up the phone before contact is established.
The increase in services and personnel has made it necessary to have more physical space, to maintain the personal distance between operators, which is why today, Sunday the 21st, two new call centers have begun to be set up, one in the Colegio 'Iberia' Infant and Primary School in Las Palmas, next to the Multiple Services Building, and another in the 'Alcalde Bernabé Rodríguez' Secondary School, next to the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Market.