Over the past five years, Samu (Mobile Emergency Care Service) has received more than 238 prank calls per day in the metropolitan region of São Paulo alone. In this period, 435,050 of the 9,652,402 calls answered were prank calls, that is, 4.5% of the total. There are more than 87 thousand per year.
The exclusive survey of R7 counted the numbers of the 39 prefectures that make up this region. It is important to emphasize that some municipalities do not have this emergency service or the computerized system to add up the calls received in recent years, so the numbers may be higher.
Hazing may seem like a relaxed game for children and adults, but it can put patients’ lives at risk and hinder the work of attendants.
For health professionals heard by the R7these false calls mainly disrupt the workflow in call centers, in addition to overloading the work of telephone operators.
“While the employee is serving these people [que passam trotes]patients in serious condition are no longer accepted”, criticizes Admilson Máximo dos Santos, medical coordinator of the regulation center of Samu in São Paulo.
How does SAMU work?
Anyone can call Samu by calling 192. The service is free and operates 24 hours a day. Assistance begins over the phone, when technicians identify the type of emergency and collect the first information from the victim.
Then, the calls are directed to the regulating doctors and nurses, who provide assistance guidelines. If deemed necessary, an ambulance is sent to the patient’s address.
According to the Ministry of Health, the activation of the rescue is only available to victims in some urgent or emergency situation that may lead to suffering, sequelae or even death. Urgent situations are considered, for example, of a clinical, surgical, obstetric and pediatric nature.
Pandemic
Analyzing the data between 2018 and 2022, it is possible to notice a drastic drop in the number of prank calls during the pandemic period. In 2019, more than 117,992 calls were recorded. While in the following year, the number dropped to 60,738 (-48.5%).
For physician Caio Genovez Medina, director of the Department of Hospital Care, Urgencies and Emergencies of São Bernardo do Campo, during the pandemic, the image of the public health system, including Samu, became more sympathetic to the population. “The services were very overloaded, which may have contributed to this awareness of the Covid scenario”, he says.
Nurse Soraia Barros, responsible for the education and statistics core at Samu de Taboão da Serra, also points out that the profile of calls has changed during the pandemic. “In 2020, people stopped triggering Samu for simple occurrences such as stomach ache, toothache, falls inside the house”.
In 2019, the city of Taboão da Serra, for example, received 5,782 prank calls. While, in 2020 and 2021 (pandemic years), the number dropped to 3,738 and 3,165, respectively.
In addition to the increase in the severity of requests, the adoption of health measures to combat Covid, such as restricting the movement of the population and the closure of businesses by the state government, influenced the drop in accidents in cities and, consequently, the number of calls to the Samu, according to Barros.
call identification
According to health professionals, most prank calls are identified through telephone calls, in the first stage of care. There are rare occasions on which an ambulance is dispatched to the address of the false request. However, they cause work overload in call centers.
To the R7the nurse from the education and statistics center at Samu in Taboão da Serra explained that technicians are able to identify prank calls when the caller does not know how to convey basic information such as the address, say random things or perceive the voice of children.
Doctor Caio Genovez Medina also said that the municipality of São Bernardo do Campo, on the ABC Paulista, receives prank calls from children, who usually make calls after returning from school, and even sexual maniacs who harass the employees.
“They [os técnicos do atendimento telefônico] they are very good and well trained. Sometimes in the first ‘hello’, they already know it’s a prank call. There is not much expense with these calls, but there is a great strain on the employees”, says Medina.
Adults do prank calls too
Unlike the expected scenario, in the capital of São Paulo, adults are the ones who most make prank calls to the emergency service.
In 2019, Samu received 87,837 prank calls, of which 66,109 were carried out by adults and 21,728 by children. In 2020, there were 37,792 false calls, 25,603 and 12,189, respectively. While, in 2021, 72,368 were attended, being 39,507 and 32,861.
According to the medical coordinator of the Samu de São Paulo regulation center, the pandemic has changed the types of services and calls. “Everyone was more confined. The children were more supervised and did not have as free access to the phone, while the adult can vent”, he points out.
hazing is a crime
Making prank calls to the emergency services is a crime under Article 266 of the Penal Code. The offender can face from one to six months in prison. Children and teenagers can also be punished.
“The act jeopardizes the response to real emergency occurrences. These episodes put lives at risk by congesting the system and directing teams to places without occurrences, which can be aggravated by the distances that need to be covered in a city the size of São Paulo”, complements the Municipality of São Paulo.
When to call Samu?
– In the event of cardio-respiratory problems;
– Exogenous intoxication and poisoning;
– Severe burns;
– In the event of mistreatment;
– Labor in which there is a risk of death of the mother or fetus;
– In suicide attempts;
– Hypertensive crises and sudden chest pains;
– When there are accidents/traumas with victims;
– Drowning;
– Electric shock;
– Accidents with dangerous products;
– Suspected heart attack or stroke (sudden change in speech, loss of strength on one side of the body and labial commissure deviation are the most common symptoms);
– Assault by firearm or melee weapon;
– Burial, Landslide;
– Convulsive Crises;
– Inter-hospital transfer of critically ill patients;
– Other situations considered urgent or emergency, with risk of death, sequelae or intense suffering.