NHSO’s 1330 hotline helps callers diagnose severity of Covid symptoms
The National Health Security Office has fine-tuned the role of its hotline 1330 to helping callers identify their level of Covid-19 symptoms so that they could seek proper treatment.
NHSO secretary-general Dr Jadet Thamthataree said on Wednesday that the role of hotline 1330 has been tweaked since the Public Health Ministry changed its policy on how to treat people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Since March 1, the ministry has treated infected people with mild or no symptoms as outpatients, asking them to seek medication based on their symptoms from hospitals where they have rights, and stay at home to recover from the virus.
Since March 16, Covid treatment has been removed from the Universal Coverage for Emergency Patients (UCEP) policy that allowed infected people to seek treatments at any hospital. The disease has instead been put on the list of UCEP Plus, meaning only patients with moderate (yellow) and severe (red) conditions could seek treatment from any hospital with the government footing the bills.
Jadet said the 1330 hotline has been adapted accordingly. He said an infected person must dial 1330 and press 14 to enter the symptom diagnosis procedure.
If they are found to be people in vulnerable groups at risk of developing severe conditions, they will be passed on to hospitals for treatment. If not, they will be told to stay at home.
Jadet said the NHSO has also opened a special line 1330 (press 18) for diagnosis of infected people who are elderly, people with eight underlying illnesses, bed-ridden patients, disabled and children under 5. If officials decide that the patients are at risk of developing severe symptoms, they will find hospitals for them, Jadet said.
He said the hotline 1330 is just a supplement system of the Covid-19 treatment system of each province. He said the infected people can check details on how to get help from the provincial administration from the website of the provincial public health office.
Covid-19 infected people in Bangkok can check the BMA website: https://main.bangkok.go.th/)and its Facebook page; www.facebook.com/prbangkok, Jadet added.
