The “hotline” for patients with oncological diseases has responded to 10 thousand requests

More than 10 thousand calls were received by the hotline from patients with oncological diseases, organized on the basis of the Moscow Scientific Research Oncological Institute named after P.A. Herzen – a branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NMIC of Radiology” of the Ministry of Health of Russia. According to her experts, during the coronavirus epidemic, people with chronic diseases not only found themselves in an increased risk group, but also faced uncertainty and did not know how to proceed properly.

The initiative to create a hotline for cancer patients during the epidemic was supported by the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko. The hotline was opened in just a few hours and became the first of its kind in Russia and unique in terms of its organization. It works around the clock and is available to any resident of our country seven days a week. 30 specialists of the call center, resident doctors and doctors of the Herzen Institute of Medical Sciences take part in its work. The line receives more than 300 calls daily.

— Our patients often require qualified individual consultations, both on diagnosis and treatment, and on routing, and on drug provision, and on many other problems, — says Andrey Kaprin, General Director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NMIC of Radiology” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

— Most often they are concerned about whether it is possible to continue cancer therapy now and how a temporary break may affect the overall effectiveness of treatment. Is it acceptable if, for example, the temperature has risen or a cough has appeared, how medical institutions are receiving treatment in quarantine, and so on.

— Appeals come from all over the country. We used the capabilities of modern “cloud” telephony (Mango Office platform) and created a distributed call center using these technologies,” explains Anastasia Mozhaeva, head of the “hotline” of the P.A. Herzen MNIOI.

— The line works around the clock, our specialists are on duty on it in shifts. Naturally, they cannot constantly be at landlines, so calls are immediately transferred to doctors’ mobile devices, and the virtual PBX routes calls so that a specialist who is currently able to speak picks up the phone as soon as possible. According to statistics, the waiting time for a doctor’s response does not exceed 20 seconds.

You can call the hotline and get an oncologist’s consultation for free and from any phone, including long-distance communication.

The hotline number of the P.A. Herzen MNIOI is: 8 800 444 31 02.

Press Service of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NMIC of Radiology” of the Ministry of Health of Russia