The Swasthya Bhavan helpline, set up to address queries related to children down with viral infections, was flooded with calls on Friday.
Many of the callers were desperate and anxious parents and relatives of ailing children from districts near Kolkata looking for beds in government hospitals in the city, senior officials of the state health department said.
The helpline — 1800-313- 444-222 — was introduced on Thursday.
Officials said most of the calls were from Nadia, North and South 24-Parganas and Hooghly. Among the callers were parents who sought clarifications on their children’s treatment for fever and breathing distress.
Callers were told to visit a doctor at the nearest government health-care facility if a child was running a temperature for more than four days. If anyone sought an expert’s opinion, the call was forwarded to a doctor.
If a child needed to be put on a ventilator and the facility was not available at the nearest government-run hospital, parents were advised against dashing to any government hospital in Kolkata immediately.
They were asked to first get a referral ticket from the chief medical officer of health, superintendent of the hospital concerned or any other senior health department official of the district. That will ensure admission to any government-run tertiary facility in the city.
A caller from Basirhat in North 24-Parganas said a seven-month-old child needed to be put on a ventilator.
“Tell the official in charge of the hospital (where the child was admitted) that you had called Swasthya Bhavan. The superintendent will make arrangements for referring the patient to a hospital in Kolkata or a nearby place where a ventilator is available,” said the official who answered the call.
The health department recently issued an advisory saying no child with a respiratory ailment can be referred to a hospital in Kolkata without ensuring that a bed is booked at the destination health-care facility.