Pandemija COVID-19 kroz prizmu poziva kol centru COVID-19 pandemic through the prism of call center contacts

There were four and they gave information and answers to the questions asked by the citizens about the COVID-19 we


Introduction
Previously unknown coronavirus, later called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first spotted in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. 1 In the Republic of Serbia, the first case of the COVID-19 was registered March 06 th , 2020. Due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus fast spreading worldwide, on March 11 th , 2020 World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic 2 . At the moment of the pandemic outbreak, due to the high prevalence of the virus spreading and the lack of available efficient therapy or vaccine, the authorities of many countries decided on preventive measures, such as social distancing, including less patient contact with healthcare institutions 3 . Under such circumstances, on March 14 th , 2020, at the initiative of the "Novi Sad" Mayor, a Call center was put into work in the city Town Hall. There were four GPs from Primary Healthcare Center Novi Sad 3 . The main aim of this Call center was to give citizens valid information on health issues. The Call center worked from March 14 th , 2020 to May 04 th , 2020, with two phone lines available on workdays, from 08h to 22h, and on Saturdays from 08h to 15h. Besides this one, from March 25 th , 2021, one more Call center was formed in PHC "Novi Sad", with a total of 16 phone lines. There were psychologists on the two of these lines, and they were available 24 hours.

Objective
We aimed at presenting the structure of the questions we asked on-call GPs in the Call center, formed in the city Town Hall.

Method
Retrospective analysis of the phone calls, on one phone line, in one seven-hour shift, during 36 working days.

Results
We analyzed 757 questions, asked in as many phone calls, classified into 14 call categories, for the purpose of this research.
The first group of questions was about fever and other health issues which might be in connection with COVID-19. There were a total of 165 (21,80%) calls from this group.
There were 134 (17,70%) questions in the second group, concerning health issues that couldn`t be connected to the COVID-19, or better said, symptoms connected to other diseases.
The third group consisted of the questions concerning social problems occurring after the going out ban for persons over 65 and curfew. Some of them were inability to call on the elder family members who were taken care of by other older persons, also over 65, inability to collect their pension from the bank and such. There were a total of 68 (8,98%) questions in this group.
The fourth group of questions concerned the isolation measures and self-isolation, and it included all the dilemmas about the ways of isolation, isolation duration, to reporting neighbors or family members who didn`t follow the recommended measures. There were 67 (8,85%) questions on this topic.
The fifth group of questions concerned follow-up visits, or better said inability to do those visits, change of catheters, INR checks, and such, which made a total of 61 (8,06 %) questions.
The sixth group was the questions about the organization of food and medications buying, a total of 46 (6,08%).
There were 44 (5,81%) questions about the going out ban, irrespective of isolation and self-isolation. The majority of those calls were really complaints about not being able to go out, leave town, and take care of the animals that were kept elsewhere.
A total of 20 (2,64%) calls were about getting PPE and disinfectants, and the calls were from the citizens but also from the representatives of building units.
There were 12 (1,59%) questions about the testing, while 11 (1,45%) calls were about going or not going to work.
There were 9 (1,19%) calls due to psychological problems, and the majority of them concerning loneliness and inability to see family members.
Some complained of their working organizations or more precisely inappropriate implementation of protective measures. There were 6 (0,79%) calls about this matter.
There were 89 (11,76%) questions from the group other that we couldn`t classify into any of the previous groups.

Discussion
Telemedicine is defined as the use of electronic, digital, internet, or phone communication as direct means of care for the patient 4 . The founding of the call center to enable Novi Sad citizens to get timely information about health issues may be considered a step toward telemedicine. During the pandemic, telemedicine helps save health resources, like personal protection equipment, ensures safe and high-quality care for patients, and keeps social distance in order to reduce viral spreading 5 .
referred to psychological problems during the isolation. In regards to this, soon after the initiation of the call center in the Town Hall, the other one was founded in the PHC Novi Sad. This one was at citizens` disposal 24/7. We presume the citizens called the PHC call center more in regards to health and psychological problems, and the Town Hall center about other problems.
The internet research of the Global Forum about universal healthcare coverage and primary healthcare showed PHC remains the cornerstone of the pandemic response, and it proved to be very resilient in fulfilling unique requests that occurred during the pandemic 7 .

Conclusion
Although the Call center was founded 2 for the sake of giving information on health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, on-call GPs helped solve a variety of problems from the domain of social security and other problems that citizens encountered. Healthcare workers and associates in primary healthcare, working in the Call center, remained the frontline contact between patients and the health system in the early days of the pandemic. These early days were distinctive for the lack of information, PPE, disinfectants, going out, and communication limitations. This showed, once more, that primary healthcare is the decisive part of the health system, always available in all situations. Taking into consideration all of the above, it implies the necessity to invest more in general medicine and primary healthcare.