Strictly follow safety guidelines call

BAHRAIN can overcome the coronavirus crisis if everyone fully abides by precautionary guidelines, stressed Bahrain’s top health official.

Supreme Council for Health chairman Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa has highlighted the need for everyone to strictly follow all procedures put in place to combat the spread of the virus for the health and safety of society.

Dr Shaikh Mohammed was speaking yesterday during an inspection visit to the Covid-19 unified call centre (444).

“Bahrain will be able, with the help of God, to overcome all challenges, with the commitment of everyone to follow the instructions issued by the concerned authorities,” he said.

“Full commitment to guidelines and its applications in the right way in all circumstances will help us overcome this stage of the virus in a manner that preserves the health and everyone’s safety.”

The inspection visit aimed at assessing the general readiness of the centre, which was established in early March and is one of Bahrain’s initial steps towards combating the outbreak.

The centre receives more than 120 callers at one time during peak days, while the number of calls exceeds 10,000 per day.

It operates round the clock seven days a week and provides support in both Arabic and English, in addition to the Urdu language to facilitate communication with expatriate communities.

In a statement from the SCH it was revealed that one call takes four and a half minutes, which may extend beyond 20 minutes to ensure accuracy in understanding the caller’s status and the accuracy of the information required.

“The unified call centre is the first gateway to deal with cases and was equipped according to the best specifications and standards,” added Shaikh Mohammed.

“It plays a key role in the success of national efforts to address the epidemic and provides support for all cases, including existing cases, contacts and those present in the precautionary quarantine.

“It also answers all queries of all citizens and residents regarding Covid-19.”

Dr Shaikh Mohammed was also briefed on the functioning of the call centre, which is run by a team of more than 180 employees and volunteer doctors, all of whom are trained to deal with various cases.

Services range across various specialties including communications service personnel, doctors of various disciplines and health promotion professionals.

“The centre operates according to the highest standards of information security to ensure confidentiality of calls and caller information,” said the statement from the SCH.

“The average number of employees per shift is 50 and work is in progress to double that number to 100 employees in the coming days.

“The centre is operated with the latest technologies of global contact centres to provide the highest levels of service to callers and prepare performance reports to monitor the level of service and ensure quality.”

Source: http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/824288/Strictly-follow-safety-guidelines-call