PM Urges People to Dial 112 If Experiencing Fever or Breathing Difficulties
The number of calls to the 144 call center has decreased significantly as citizens already acquired detailed knowledge of the legislative specifics of the state of emergency, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia stated while speaking with journalists.
The head of government visited the 112 and 144 call center together with Internal Affairs Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri yesterday, where he familiarized himself with the working process of the government's unified hotline.
The PM noted that the 144 call center started to operate recently due to necessity. Its main goal is to answer citizens' questions concerning the conditions and legislative specifics of the state of emergency.
"The number of calls to 144 has decreased significantly. Citizens have already acquired detailed knowledge of the legislative specifics of the state of emergency," Gakharia stated.
The Prime Minister spoke about the importance of 112 given the situation in the country and noted that 112 has become the first line of defense in the fight against COVID-19 as it allows citizens to receive highly qualified consultations as soon as symptoms appear and to determine if they should stay at home or go to the hospital.
"112 was set up with a completely novel approach with the Ministry of Health and, for the first time, with medical services that refer to family and village doctors. This is the first line of defense in the fight against COVID-19, as any citizen can dial 112 as soon as he or she begins to display any basic symptoms, such as fever or breathing difficulties. 112 will immediately connect him or her with a family or village doctor. That is to say, the call is received in Tbilisi from any region of Georgia, it is returned to the location from where the call originated and the citizen is connected with a family or village doctor.
"After that, the consultation takes place in accordance with the checklist. It the citizen needs to be taken to the hospital, they are taken to the regional fever center where they remain under round-the-clock observation. Next, the person is tested, after which a decision is made concerning which hospital will receive them. This is important because we are protecting our citizens in this way – they can dial 112 at the first sign of symptoms to receive very high-quality telemedicine services. Secondly, we are protecting our ambulance network – the resources of which need to be spared right now – as well as, of course, our hospitals.
"About 5-6% of incoming calls out of 400 are being redirected back to 112 to move to the level of emergency services, which means that our family and village doctors are managing the initial symptoms, with which our citizens contact them, at home. This is an extremely important first line of defense in the fight against COVID-19. Telemedicine provides citizens with the opportunity to receive highly qualified consultations and to determine whether they should stay at home or go to the hospital; and if they go to a fever center, they will be tested immediately to determine if they are dealing with COVID-19 or something else. Then, they will be allocated to the corresponding hospital. This allows us to ensure that the hospitals that are earmarked to fight against COVID-19 are not overburdened. I would like to urge everyone to dial 112 from anywhere in Georgia as soon as they start displaying initial symptoms if they have a fever or experience breathing problems," Gakharia stated.
Source: Georgian Government's Press Service