It saves 200 lives per day,if it can wade through 35,000 prank calls

The 108 service,which prides itself for saving at least 200 lives per day by reaching medical attention during the crucial golden hour,has been facing brickbats since the past two weeks for not being able to reach ambulances on time. In two instances,in Vijayawada and Adilabad,two lives were lost this week because the callers could not access the choked 108 helpline.

“Pranksters are ruining our emergency response system,” says C Venkat,head of GVK EMRI. “As the 108 service has a policy of answering every call even if the call centre knows from the caller identification that someone is playing a prank and is calling persistently,they have to take the call. We have callers asking to help with train reservation,mobile recharge,and some who simply call to abuse and vent out. Others call asking for ‘time pass’. It is now affecting the efficiency of the system because genuine callers are put on hold as the call centre deals with more and more prank calls,” said H S D Srinivas,Andhra head of GVK EMRI.

The toll-free 108 call centre received 5,727 calls in April 2010 from one mobile number,3,531 calls from another mobile number. In May 2010,the call centre received 3,876 calls from one mobile number and 2,900 calls from another mobile number.

The service has recorded calls from spiteful neighbours who called saying their neighbour is suffering a heart attack only for the paramedic team to find that person concerned is fine and unaware of an emergency call. “Sometimes addresses given by callers do not exist and it appears they watch from a safe distance the ambulance come and leave. Call centre executives end up spending more time counselling pranksters,” one executive said.

The call centre had a harrowing time in April and May as they received thousands of calls from children. The GVK EMRI is now appealing to parents to supervise their children and educate them on the use of 108 number.

On an average the 108 call centre receives 35,000-40,000 calls a day of which only 5000-6000 are calls relating to emergencies and the rest are ineffective calls,Srinivas said.

“Data shows more number of genuine emergency calls come in during rush hours,especially from 5 pm to 9 pm. We post adequate staff to take calls according to these timings. Now there is such a drastic increase in the number of calls throughout the day that we need more persons to take the calls,most of which turn out to be pranks. Normally,one operator takes 350-400 calls in an eight-hour shift,but now due to increased prank calls throughout the day he or she is forced to take 700-800 calls,“ Srinivas said,adding that many female operators are unable to cope with the stress and abusive callers and attrition rate has gone up.

“In April and May 2010 we have received 47,000 ineffective calls (78 per cent) per day against 37,000 in January and February 2010. Against our average response of three minutes to assign a vehicle,this month our average response has gone up to 12 minutes during peak hours. This has resulted in delays in assigning ambulances,” the official said.

Due to the delay,irate callers often abuse the paramedical team and the pilot of ambulance for reaching late. “We had to conduct a counselling session for them to deal with such situations because till two or three weeks ago they were being lauded for their quick response and service and now they are being abused for delay,” Srinivas said.

GVK EMRI has given a list of numbers of frequent callers to police but usually the owners blame it on the kids and assure that it won’t be repeated. “The EMRI doesn’t have laws that makes a person liable for making prank calls. The police arrested a caller from Eluru,who called 5,000 times,others were let off with a warning,” an official said.

EMRI,a public-private partnership initiative of the state government,which launched the 108 Emergency Response Service in August 2005 is now known as GVK EMRI after GVK Group took over its management in June 2009. Started with just 15 ambulances,the GVK EMRI today operates 2,600 ambulances in Andhra Pradesh,Gujarat,Uttarakhand,Goa,Rajasthan,Tamil Nadu,Karnataka,Assam,Meghalaya. Respective state governments bear 95 per cent of the cost. Madhya Pradesh and Punjab have signed an MOU with GVK EMRI to replicate a similar model of emergency response service.