Vaccine hotline unusable, should be priority, says Segambut MP

 

Putrajaya must address the fact that the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme hotline is virtually unusable, Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh said.

In a statement today, Yeoh said she had tried using the number many times at the request of her constituents who are struggling to register with the MySejahtera application.

Yeoh (above) said the problems include needing to reschedule, incorrect information or being assigned to a vaccination centre in the wrong state, among others.

"On the vaksincovid.gov.my website, after keying in the information in the 'semak' (checking) page, if we need to speak to a human, we have to call the number at the bottom of the screen.

"My interns and assistants tried every five to 10 minutes but were immediately given the automated response 'This line is currently busy, please try again later'," Yeoh said.

In one instance, Yeoh said her team was put on hold as caller number 30. After waiting for a long time, they were moved to number two, only to have their call cut by a response claiming that the lines were busy and that they should try again.

Yeoh said there are many senior citizens who are trying their best to adapt to new technology, but MySejahtera was proving to be a huge obstacle.

A solution, said Yeoh, would be to ensure that the hotline and appointment service is decentralised, especially now that more people are keen to be vaccinated due to the growing number of Covid-19 cases.

This, she said, should be prioritised over the planned new MySejahtera features that vaccine minister Khairy Jamaluddin promised yesterday.

"When you have less than two million people vaccinated and only 11 million registered, treat every phone call wanting vaccination with a sense of urgency. Let them talk to anyone but a robot on the line," Yeoh added. - Mkini