‘DOC CALL 247’

A telephonic Labour Of Love from Sri Lanka Medical Association

The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), the premier non-political, non-trade union, academic organisation of all doctors in Sri Lanka, has embarked on an initiative to provide the much-needed individual and confidential advice and guidance exclusively on COVID-19, to the general public through all mobile networks and the Sri Lanka Telecom Land-based telecommunication portal.

In these dark days of despair due to all kinds of vagaries of this nasty coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the SLMA realised that a crying need of the hour is to provide accurate information and advice to our countrymen and women from all corners of this resplendent isle regarding this pandemic, at the press of a few buttons of a telephone.

The SLMA introduced this project just about 10 days ago with assistance from SLT-Mobitel mobile network. Mobitel is the pioneering architect of the logistics of the venture and we are most grateful to them for their benevolence and generosity in this effort.

Following the initial groundwork and logistics being finalised, the SLMA invited other mobile telecommunication providers to join this humanitarian venture. It is to the eternal credit of all other mobile telecommunication providers; Dialog, Airtel and Hutch, that they very readily and most willingly agreed to join this benevolent scheme as a service to our nation. They too need to be applauded for their commitment and big-heartedness in supporting to the hilt, this initiative commenced by the SLMA.

The telephone number to be dialled from ANY MOBILE PHONE is 247 and from a Sri Lanka Telecom Land-line, it is 1247. As the number implies it is a twenty-four hour, seven days of the week service, made available in Sinhala, Tamil and English. Each call is limited to a maximum of 10 minutes and if the subscriber so wishes to do, at the end of the maximum time, he or she could dial the number again but we cannot guarantee that they will be connected to the original recipient of the first call.

It is a completely toll-free service with no cost whatsoever to the subscriber taking the call from any of the participating networks. The operators of the system will forward the call to a qualified doctor who would try his or her best to help the subscriber. The Committee of the SLMA entrusted with this task has even burned mid-night oil through a Zoom link in a committed effort to help and train the doctors to provide their best services in this endeavour. The doctors who have volunteered to provide this service have elected to do it completely free-of-charge in a committed effort to pay back at least some of the debt that we owe to the people of our country who sponsored our education and professional advancement. The response from the doctors of the SLMA membership has been absolutely magnificent but I am compelled to record here that we do need even more doctors to participate in this endeavour as we are likely to have a virtual tsunami of calls in the not-too-distant future. I do cordially invite every member of the SLMA to help us in this task as even an hour spent from time to time by opting into the system may help to save lives.

The basic grid system has now evolved into a network with Suwa Seriya Ambulance Service and the entire endeavour has the approval and blessings of the Ministry of Health. Through this venture, we hope to provide advice even to COVID-19 patients who are confined to their homes in home-care, who would then be able to get state-of-the-art medical information and advice from doctors. This is a service that is complementary to other official helplines and services available to our people.

This initiative of the SLMA stands out from our usual work but is quite valuable to the community at large, judging by the experience that we have gained over the last few days. Many of the subscribers need accurate advice, guidance and even reassurance. We do believe that we have been able to help the citizens of this country, the hospital system, the community health services and the Ministry of Health by contributing towards a reduction of the mental and physical burden of all concerned. Those who have used this service have so far been extremely appreciative of all our efforts.

This venture on the part of the SLMA is coordinated by a committee of dedicated medical professionals, consisting of Dr Ruvaiz Haniffa, Professor Indika Karunathilake, Dr Sajith Edirisinghe and a whole host of others, too numerous to mention, under the auspices and guidance of Dr Padma Gunaratne, the President of SLMA and Dr Sumithra Tissera, the Honorary Secretary of the SLMA. I take no special credit for this venture except perhaps for being the mouth-piece of the initiative.

We earnestly appeal to our people to make use of this facility ONLY FOR COVID RELATED MATTERS but not to burden us with unrelated calls and nuisance endeavours. They need to keep in their mind that misdemeanours of such nature would only prevent another needy person from contacting us.

As the title of this article clearly states, it is indeed a labour of love on the part of the SLMA. Our fervent wish is that it would go from strength to strength and be a beacon of hope for the people of our land. Let it be a guiding light of succour to the needy.