Aussies left waiting on coronavirus help for up to an hour, prompting service expansion
The coronavirus assistance line spruiked by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt has been inundated with calls, causing massive wait times.
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Australians hunting information and assistance amid the coronavirus outbreak have been left waiting in some cases for more than an hour on the government hotline.
The assistance line, that has been spruiked by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt has been inundated with calls after each new case has been announced.
Hotline operators Healthdirect said the 1800 020 080 number had received a high volume of calls and queries had “significantly” increased over the past week.
“Consistently people have inquired about the symptoms of COVID-19 and where/how they can get tested,” Healthdirect Australia spokeswoman said.
“We are experiencing heavy call volumes which we are working to smooth out.
“The call handlers are able to answer general, non-clinical inquiries about symptoms, travel restrictions, preventing spread, what isolation means, who is at risk.”
Healthdirect is a publicly funded company, providing online and phone advice for specific health topics including pregnancy and more recently the COVID-19 outbreak.
There is also a dedicated Victorian hotline managed by Ambulance Victoria though Nurse on Call, that was set up to deal with an influx of calls to triple-0 amid the virus panic.
It has also seen a spike recently and was working to expand the service.
“We have increased the capacity of the hotline as we experience increased demand with additional Victorian cases being confirmed – a trend we expect to continue,” a DHHS spokesman said.
“We understand the hotline can still be very busy from time to time.
“While we work on further scaling up this service, we do ask the public for patience.”
Victorians are urged to continue to call 1800 675 398 so paramedics can focus on emergencies.
The average wait time for that line is 9.5 minutes.
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