Piramal Swasthya Attends Over 2.5 Lakh Calls on COVID-19 Via 104 Health Information Helpline

Piramal Swasthya Management and Research Institute, an initiative of Piramal Foundation, in partnership with various State Governments has managed to address over 2.5 lakh calls related to COVID-19 queries through 104 Health Information Helpline services. The Health Helpline in partnership State Governments of Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh attended to these calls during the lockdown period from March 25, 2020 until date. On an average, the 104-Health Helpline received around 20,000 calls in a day.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, the 104 Health Information Helpline has been acting as a channel between the governments and the communities by offering validated medical advice to the callers 24x7 every day of the week. It has undertaken several unique and customised initiatives in collaboration with State Governments to create awareness around Covid-19 cases. State Governments of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar have announced 104 helpline as one stop solution for all COVID -19 queries and grievances.

In order to deal with increased number of calls, the frontline staff team has been significantly expanded as per state requirement. Currently, over 1200 staff across various centres that includes paramedics, counsellors and doctors, are relentlessly attending to calls related to health advice, counselling, information sharing and reporting of COVID-19.

Paresh Parasnis, CEO, Piramal Foundation said, “At Piramal Swasthya we stay resolute in our efforts to support Central and State Governments to address the COVID-19 pandemic, even in the remotest part of the country. The 104 health helpline proved to be a simple and yet effective tool to share validated information as per the guidelines of WHO and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, especially for people who are not technology savvy or live in areas where access to media is challenging.  This initiative has helped in creating awareness thus bringing down the anxiety and fear in the society caused due to the coronavirus.”

In the year 2006, Piramal Swasthya started 104 Health Information Helpline in India as a one stop solution for all health-related information and advice. The service is supported by innovative software application and Clinical Decision Support System of validated algorithms and disease summaries and helps in tackling shortage of human resource enabling access to quality Healthcare services.

Piramal Swasthya in partnership with the state governments has been supporting beneficiaries through 104 Health Helpline across 7 states – Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Bihar.