1177 Care guide's appeal: Stop calling us unnecessarily

1177 The Health Care Guide in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö has recently had to take various measures to handle all the calls that come in because of concerns about the corona virus.

Yesterday, SVT Nyheter reported that the operations in Västra Götaland needed to increase the workforce by up to ten extra people each day to cope with the pressure. According to Deputy Head of Operations, Jill Johansson, every other call is about the corona center and most of the callers have no symptoms at all and have not been in any of the affected areas.

The situation looks the same for the Care Guide's telephone service in Region Skåne, where you have to call in extra staff to handle all calls.

- We get questions about from opening parcels from China to whether you can get infected if you have driven a car through Gothenburg.

Sune Svensson adds that of course we have full understanding that there is a concern, and that people with illness symptoms are always welcome to contact them. At the same time, he appeals that people who are generally worried should first look for answers to their questions on the 1177's, or the Public Health Authority's website, for the fastest answers.

- It's about patient safety where those who really need us risk not coming, says Svensson.

In the Stockholm region, the increased number of calls about the corona virus has been handled by activating an extra button selection in its telephone service.

- If you have a question about corona, you can now choose button choice 9 to reach a person who only answers questions about it, says Hesam Akbari, press officer at Region Stockholm.

In the past week, the number of calls that deal with corona has increased from 3-4 per cent of the total number of calls received by the Care Guide in the region to 10-12 per cent.

As the Public Health Authority receives a lot of calls about the corona virus, the authority announced on Friday that it can now call the national information number 113 13 for answers.

All information provided there must be verified by the Public Health Authority or other responsible authority, and the service is available 24 hours a day throughout the year.

- Anyone who has disease symptoms should of course call 1177 The Health Guide, however, says Henrik Josephson, communicator at the Public Health Authority.