NHS 111 number ‘not fit for purpose’ claims Tameside group

The NHS 111 number has been slammed as ‘not fit for purpose’ amid deteriorating performance and more people hanging up before their calls for help are answered.

Members of Tameside’s strategic commissioning board expressed fears that people giving up on the helpline are heading instead to already overstretched hospital accident and emergency departments.

According to the most recent figures, in February the North West 111 service failed to meet any of its key performance indicators set by the health service.

These included how many people were transferred directly to a doctor or nurse during their call, which was just 38.37pc, nearly half the target of 75pc.

Just over half of people received a call back within the specified ten-minute timeframe – which was also significantly below the 75-pc target.

Cabinet member for children’s services, Oliver Ryan said he had concerns over the number of calls to the service which were abandoned, with seven pc of people hanging up.

He said: “Can I just express my disappointment in the NHS 111 figures, they are not where we need them to be.

“The majority of residents use this service for out of hours advice or to check where they are medically, and then to read that the performance has deteriorated – it looks like quite severely in the months to February.

“It’s not good and it needs investment, it’s a national issue. People need to be answered with information.”

The average call pick up for the month was one minute and 46 seconds.

Lay member for commissioning, Carol Prowse, said she wanted more information about why the service seemed to be getting worse – as this could be pushing people on to the overburdened A&E.

“Each month we look and it’s never anywhere near where it should be and it constantly says deteriorating, so actually the trajectory seems to be going completely in the wrong direction,” she said.

“That in turn will impact potentially on the A&E, because if most people can’t access that service.

“Yet again there is an action plan, but the action plan doesn’t seem to be working so the question is how rigorously is pressure being put on them to improve.

“It just isn’t basically fit for purpose at the moment.”

Interim director of commissioning, Jessica Williams said investigating abandoned calls was important, as there was currently no data to establish where those people had turned to apart from 111.

“But my guess would be that they just went straight into an urgent treatment centre, a walk-in centre or an A&E department,” she said.

“I would suggest that we did some work around that.”

The meeting heard that Blackpool’s Clinical Commissioning Group are currently the lead commissioner for NHS 111 services across the whole of the North West.

However, Ms Williams said they would explore at a local level whether more support could be offered to manage the service.

“This has moved in the wrong way – and it impacts hugely on the other aspects which we do commission within our services,” she said.

Officer Ali Rehman told members there was an action and improvement plan being implemented to improve performance, he added.

“It’s clearly been challenging for them in regards of working through that and I think they’ve had some staffing issues as well in terms of training,” he said.

The performance report presented at the meeting also states there are efforts to improve technology within the call centres and collaboration with other 111 providers to find better ways of working.

 

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