Northerner
Admin (Retired)
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- Type 1
Computer failures led to a series of serious incidents with a vital NHS phone service.
The 111 patient helpline, launched last year to replace NHS Direct, suffered three major outages during 2013, one of which forced operators to revert to writing down patients health concerns on pieces of paper.
The telephone service, operated by Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS), relies heavily on computer software to give advice.
The majority of people manning the phone lines are not clinically trained and calls are only diverted to nurses and doctors if they are deemed serious.
The loss of the computer system, which failed for periods in June, July and October, meant large backlogs of calls while staff waited for it to be fixed.
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/computer-failures-led-serious-incidents-6841981
The 111 patient helpline, launched last year to replace NHS Direct, suffered three major outages during 2013, one of which forced operators to revert to writing down patients health concerns on pieces of paper.
The telephone service, operated by Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS), relies heavily on computer software to give advice.
The majority of people manning the phone lines are not clinically trained and calls are only diverted to nurses and doctors if they are deemed serious.
The loss of the computer system, which failed for periods in June, July and October, meant large backlogs of calls while staff waited for it to be fixed.
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/computer-failures-led-serious-incidents-6841981