State sends flu call jobs to Canada Newfoundland-based firm staffs hotline for Department of Health
By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau First published in print: Friday, May 8, 2009
ALBANY — The state Department of Health has paid $46,000 to a Canadian company to set up a swine flu hotline, angering state employee unions.
Callers using a toll-free number will probably be learning about the latest state developments in the health crisis from someone working from a call center in the Canadian province of Newfoundland under the deal.
Swine flu calls are being handled by Telelink, a firm based in St. John's Newfoundland, drawing criticism from the Public Employees Federation, whose members are among state workers facing layoffs and pressure to reopen labor contracts. The union says the phone service is the latest example of a long-standing complaint that state agencies are too quick to hire private firms for jobs that their people can do. But the situation is not unique as public and private operations seeking to cut costs contract with outside call centers based in the United States, Canada or India.
Calls to the line at 1-800-808-1987, were met with a standard greeting: "New York State Department of Health." The service offers basic information. When a reporter asked how someone can tell if he has swine flu, the answerer said the symptoms are similar to regular flu and the caller should go to a doctor.
When asked how many cases are in New York State, she said, "there are a few.'' When pushed, she put the reporter on hold for a moment and then said there were 45.
The man who answered the third call made an hour later told a reporter there were 98 cases.
Unlike the three earlier calls, fielded in Newfoundland, this person said he was located in Hauppauge, Long Island.
On yet another call, the answerer, in Newfoundland, said the firm has people working in New York as well as Ohio and Ontario.
Regardless of whether the calls were in Canada or New York, unions were not happy with the concept.
"There are probably a whole range of things that, with better management and a more comprehensive approach, public employees could do the job more effectively," said Steve Madarasz, spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association.
Years ago, in the late 80's, a friend of mine was laid off from his job. He was going to the unemployment office and was a little reticent about it, so he asked if I would go with him. I remember that they there was a cup of pencils for people to fill the forms out with. The worker there came out to assist my friend and I asked him why the pencils were made in Arkansas and were not the Ticonderoga brand then made in New York. Well, the man told me that the pencils were out out to bid. Well, obviously the pencil company in NYS could not compete with the pencil company in Arkansas. It kind of goes to show you what a vicious cycle it all is when taxes are high, and barriers to success are constantly raised by an ever intrusive and regulatory government such as ours. Liberalism and socialism has doomed Old York.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
First....exactly how necessary is it that they needed to create a 'swine flu hot line' ? If anyone has any questions or concerns, there are doctors, hospitals, clinics and health departments.
Second....there is absolutely NOTHING anyone can do about this flu strain...no matter how many 'hot lines' there are. Has our government actually become successful in making the masses think they have no common sense?
It is a flu!!!! Wash your hands, don't sneeze or cough your spit all over the place. Stay home if you are sick!
I don't think this flu hot line was the least bit necessary.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
some people are ill and becasue of the repubs and the bad health care letting the big insur companies off the hook they are getting sicker and sicker and need the services and help that the state can give. WHY SO EXTREME BUMBLER?
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If anyone has any questions or concerns, there are doctors, hospitals, clinics and health departments. 
