According to the TV & Radio I was going to have wait hours on the phone and probably die before seeing a doctor – complete rubbish:

I phoned this morning at 10am and only had to wait a maximum of 5 mins before getting through. Within another 5 mins I’d got an appointment with a GP Out of Hours service for 11am. Arrived 15 mins early but saw a GP straight away and was home by 11:15am.

What a brilliant service – ignore all the scare stories.

You were lucky.

111 is a privatised service to the public, ie we pay them to make a profit by not having enough staff ,poorly training them, etc.
Then there are all the timewasters, and idiots who want a second or third opinion, after seeing a gp earlier that day or week.So ring up requesting a dr and blocking the lines.

There are also the ill people who ring up and cant get through, so attend a and e for support or ring an ambulance taxi.

In several cases 111 is run by the ambulance service. Teething issues have been hard and ambulances/a&e are getting increased work loads as a result, but ultimately this is a good service and when it works well it will be great!

Yes just like the line it replaced meehaja, Ambulance Indirect.

Just like the ambulance service/taxidirect being paid to provide a service that already existed called NHS DIRECT, where call centres where closed staff made redundant , and new staff employed on difeeret contions of work for less pay.

I work for them, can’t understand all the fuss in the press. When I left work today there were 112 staff waiting in ready to take calls.

As usually press = 99% tosh

That’s your area though Houns it’s not the case everywhere but yes the press highlight the worst of it. That said the rubbish we’ve been sent to is incredible.

I can imagine. We are right opposite the control centre for the Ambo service for our area. They often visit and have no problem with what we are doing. We (NHS 111) use the same pathways system as them. We have to check all 999 outcomes with a clinician (this doesn’t delay response) very rarely do they say it doesn’t warrant an ambo.
You will know this Drac of course, but a lot of other folk don’t realise there are lots of different ambulance codes/response times depending on the disposition

But thats what should happen all the highlighted cases should be examined and action taken to stop it happening again.

Every non emergency an ambulance is sent to is one less ambulance available for real emergencies.

And as always, I wish I could say more + give examples of where patients needed/didn’t need an ambulance but can’t say more than that

Agreed project. I will probe and probe to make sure an ambo is needed if it comes to that out come. However 90% of the time it is absolutely clear that they need an ambulance

Yeah the 111 up here is run by our trust and uses similar pathways as our control, so that’s why we get as much well crap. The pathways relies on keywords and if they’re used it triggers a priority response but sometimes if they’d just asked a couple of more questions they’d realised it wasn’t anything like it sounded.

I do hope it starts to work but after seeing what NHS Direct diverted to use I have my doubts.

Do you guys feedback in strong terms about such calls ?

Do you guys feedback in strong terms about such calls ?

I did with NHS Direct but after seeing no change I gave up.

Shame. I guess things won’t change without feedback then.

We welcome feedback, but, I imagine it has to go so far up the chain before its noticed.

I remember my very first call, a rather irate paramedic. Think we caused him to be late for his tea break or something

😉 😛

I think the press want to see it fail. I’m not aware of an alternative so surely it is better than nothing. It sounds harsh that some people will have bad experiences but they already do with the health service in general. If you take enough calls not all of them will be a success. It seems that this is being picked up on. How does it compare (in actual statistics not anecdotes) to NHS direct?

It’s widely accepted in our control that we mostly get a lot of rubbish from Nhsd. And they work in the same call centre!
Keeps us in a job I suppose..

I have had need to use the service twice, NHS Direct when my mum was ill but still with us. They didn’t hesitate and it was an obvious case for an ambulance but as mum was didn’t want the fuss, over reaction so I let them make the decision.

Second time was the other day when my GF had a funny turn, hard to spot with her admittedly. She had been the gym and when she got home had a shower started getting words muddled up and in the wrong places in a sentence. They were great got through quickly, clear perfect directions such as speaking to her but said to take the phone if she was struggling, escalated to second level or whatever. Escalated again and had a call back in 30 minutes. No ambulance needed just rest and something to eat she was right as rain.

Brilliant service, Drac, Houns, if this is what you guys or emergency ambulance, thankyou. I can imagine you get a lot of abuse, idiots and time wasters but I salute you.

But if the people on the ground don’t provide the feedback then it’s a lost cause.

Thanks pingu, glad you got the service and care you needed. However I’m just a phone monkey, it’s the nurses, Drac and his colleagues that do the hard stuff.

I don’t know much about nhs direct as I’m solely 111, however from what I gather its the same service, same staff, newer computer system. NHS direct still exists for general health enquiries (and for areas who’ve not adopted 111 yet)

Houns for me the “phone monkey” is my first point of contact. That was the person who calmed me down, thinking she was having a stroke and managed the situation, ie if she struggles to answer the questions talke the phone”.

Great work.

Thanks Pingu and Houns he’s right your contribution is equally as important.

I must admit, it’s good job satisfaction when you get someone come on completely panicking and they go off laughing and joking.

It’s not so nice when someone is phoning you from the toilet and you can hear exactly why they’re calling. However I have managed to cure 3 weeks worth of constipation for one patient by talking to them 😮

My experience is that NHSD are fantastic folk, paramedics are equally fantastic but very stressed & suspicious folk and consultants are superficial folk with a silver tongue.

However, I appreciate (hope) their exterior is a result of external factors. I just wish it didn’t have to be so and am thankful the work/career they do/chose, for the intentions they have deep down.

Might be joining you soon houns… Clinical advisor role beckons!

paramedics are equally fantastic but very stressed & suspicious folk

Sceptical, one thing you so learn is that people lie. That’s why history taking is so important, they can lie but they never get the history right.

They sent me out to get tablets for my wife, who had the worst headache ever. Her vision was fuzzy and could only manage yes no answers.
Within 2 more hours she was in intensive care, then in for emergency neuro surgery.
Chemist would not sell me any tablets without my wife there, so waste of time going. Luckly my mil turned up while I was at the shops and called 999.
The guilt that my lackof action nearly killed her is something I struggle to forget.
I think the whole system puts to much emphasis on what the patient or relative (me) says

Shes recovery well now by the way,

It wasn’t working very well at all 3-4 weeks back, more IT issues than clinical issues. Still in some parts of the country it isn’t working properly (I know for a fact it isn’t where I work)

seems as if 3 deaths are now being investigated, due to failures of the system.

and surprise surprise theyre being investigated by the same health authoritiies that run the system.

Like a butcher investigating the death of meat on his slab.

Spent the weekend working for an emergency social service team, and we have had good service from 111. The private firm running 111 and the out of hours gp service have been recruiting heavily, and seem to be shaping up pretty well.

However 90% of the time it is absolutely clear that they need an ambulance

Really – how do you know that without feedback? And guess what, do you really think with the amount of extra work the service has caused we actually have time to give feedback? As Drac has already said re NHSDire-ect, I have flagged several jobs and totally wasted my time. The amount of so-called Red2 ie. ‘life-threatening’ emergencies I get sent to via 111 is farcical and I would conservatively estimate that only around 1 in 10 is actually life-threatening.

I could recount numerous tales of ridiculous jobs I have been sent to eg. ‘major blood loss’ which turned out to be a small nick while shaving, someone who ‘couldn’t sleep’, toothache, and I won’t even go into the amount of calls for long term ailments including one yesterday for a pain which the patient had had for 3 years!

Funnily enough, the more money those who are responsible for running it make, the better it seems to work 🙄 I would be very hard pushed to find anyone in my service on the front line who has anything good to say about it!

Been in Newcastle this weekend and my mother had to make a call to 111.
Very serious situation, she probably should have just called an ambulance, but was told 6hrs for an ambulance. Terrible service all told for Newcastle. Eventually we were able to get hold of a doctor but awful really.

tonyg

That throws up lots of questions as to how things work (or don’t)!

I appreciate you may not want to elaborate on your Mothers situation but I’m surprised if, as you say, it was ‘very serious’ that she was told 6 hours?

How did you manage to get hold of a doctor on bank holiday weekend?

Been in Newcastle this weekend and my mother had to make a call to 111.
Very serious situation, she probably should have just called an ambulance, but was told 6hrs for an ambulance. Terrible service all told for Newcastle. Eventually we were able to get hold of a doctor but awful really.

6hr wait, perhaps you should have bundled her in a car or a taxi and down to the local a and e, let them decide if it was serious,not somebody at the other end of a phone line.

Hi I wasn’t in Newcastle and she (in her eighties) was looking after my father who died on Saturday am. Drove 350miles but didn’t get there in time. I don’t think that the 111 delay would have made a difference to the outcome but it certainly added hugely to my families stress.