At Bangkok City Hall (Sao Chingcha), Pol.Gen. Aswin Kwanmuang, Governor of Bangkok, chaired the teleconference with the executives of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) as well as BMA organizations and agencies to follow up the increase of efficiency in picking-up and sending patients to hospitals amid the situation of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this occasion, Gen. Natthapon Nakpanich, Secretary-General of the National Security Council, also participated in this video conference to follow up the work performance of the BMA organizations and agencies.
At the meeting, Pol.Lt.Gen. Sopon Pisuttiwong, Deputy Governor of Bangkok, reported after the site visit to follow up the work of Erawan Center under the BMA Medical Service Department that currently the Erawan Center, as the main network for transporting emergency patients and COVID-19 patients of the BMA, had provided services via hotline 1669 with officers stationed at the Center around the clock, splitting into 3 shifts. However, during the new round of COVID-19 outbreak starting from February 2021, it found that people had called for service via the hotline, approximately 3,500 calls per day, both from emergency patients and COVID-19 patients. When the people gave a phone call to Erawan Center, the system would make a reservation for service. If they hanged up the phone and called again, the system would automatically renew the reservation for service. Therefore, many people misunderstood that there was no one answered the phone calls.
In this regard, the Governor of Bangkok instructed the BMA Medical Service Department to urgently fix the problem to increase efficiency in transporting emergency patients. This included the increase of officers. Firstly, the officers working on night shifts will be transferred to the day shift from 08.00 – 16.00 hrs., during which the large number of people call for service. Call management system will be realigned by answering a call and asking only for the callers’ full names and contact numbers. Then an ad-hoc team of officers will be specially arranged to call them back so that the service can be provided rapidly and the waiting time can be shortened. The system will be improved to have interactive voice response with automated attendant while the people hold the line waiting for service. Telephone lines will be added for effective management.
Regarding the provision of hospitels, all 50 district offices were assigned to expedite the coordination and provide the names of appropriate hotels so that the Medical Service Department can visit and check the preparedness for converting into hospitels based on the prescribed criteria. For example, the hotel must not use central air-conditioning system or carpets. State quarantine (SQ) and alternative state quarantine (ASQ) hotels are the first to be contacted as they are ready to be converted and have already passed the evaluation. The district offices were also instructed to detect the COVID‐19 infected person in their responsible areas and report to the Medical Service Department every day for further management and treatment.
