Samu received almost 5 prank calls per hour in the 1st quarter | Rio de Janeiro

Prank calls to Samu reach 5% of total service calls in Rio

Making prank calls to public utility telephones is considered a crime under the Brazilian penal code. Even so, from the first day of 2024 until Sunday (31), the Mobile Emergency Care Service (Samu) received more than 10 thousand fake calls, almost 5 prank calls per hour, with requests for help for emergencies that don’t exist and disrupt the functioning of the service in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Last year there were almost 40 thousand false calls, around 5% of all calls to 192.

Most are made by children, adults who call to speak obscene words and people who make false calls for help.

The Samu telephone exchange in the city of Rio de Janeiro receives an average of one hundred such calls per day. Attendants are trained to identify false calls, but it is not always possible to prevent an ambulance from being placed on the street to treat a patient who does not exist.

For Samu’s doctor, Bruno Sant’anna, the loss also affects those who need care.

“When a team goes to a service that is a prank, all this effort ends up becoming ineffective and harming other people who could be benefiting, such as sending an ambulance to a patient who really needed care,” he explains.

Samu’s help starts with the call. Over the phone, doctors and nurses give the first instructions that could save the lives of those on the other end of the line.

Aiming to put an end to this problem, Samu carries out guidance work in schools and relies on the common sense of families to educate their children. Making prank calls disrupts the work of those who work in the public service to save lives.

“Today, children have access to cell phones, so this also increases the possibility of this type of practice. So, we took this opportunity to appeal to parents to raise their children’s awareness”, says José Henriques Marques Nero, manager of the Permanent Education Center.