Majority of NHS 111 callers 'placed in call-back queues'

[Northerner]

STAFF manning Oxfordshire’s non-emergency NHS phone line should manage patients’ expectations on when to expect a call back, Healthwatch Oxfordshire has said.

According to board papers seen by Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group last month, the NHS 111 service run by South Central Ambulance Service received 15,382 calls over March.

But of these only 88 per cent were answered within 60 seconds, compared to a 95 per cent national target.

At the same time just 28 per cent of patients that needed to be ‘warm transferred’ - passed over from a call handler to a qualified clinician for further assessment - were handed straight over, while the rest were placed in a queue for a call handler.

The CCG noted that this was ‘not marginally close to the national standard’ of 85 per cent.

http://www.heraldseries.co.uk/news/...callers___39_placed_in_call_back_queues__39_/

 

[mikeyB]

I'm not sure this is news. I can't see any report of folk coming to any harm by this apparent lack of adherence to national standards. So what is the consequence of this apparently shabby service? I'm not saying there isn't one, but it it isn't mentioned here.

Any south Oxfordshire folk on the forum to fill us in the rest of the story?

 

[Robin]

I'm not sure this is news. I can't see any report of folk coming to any harm by this apparent lack of adherence to national standards. So what is the consequence of this apparently shabby service? I'm not saying there isn't one, but it it isn't mentioned here.

Any south Oxfordshire folk on the forum to fill us in the rest of the story?

This is our area. Can't tell you anything personally, as fortunately I haven't had cause to ring 111. It does seem to be a bit of a non news event, half way down the article, it seems to report that most people were satisfied with the service they got. The main Oxford papers don't seem to have bothered to report it.

 

[mikeyB]

Ta for that Robin, thought it was your area. No story then.

 

[Amigo]

Not my area but I received a shabby service from 111 with a poor response time when I rang them one evening. They 'warm transferred' me if that's the delightful expression they use but it took a doctor hours to ring me back and he rang through the night. I had severe pneumonia and sepsis and all the symptoms were pointing to it. I'd never ring them again because by following their 'protocol', I very nearly did come to serious harm.
I doubt the problem of poor response times is limited to South Oxfordshire. Sorry for the cynicism but I'm not impressed with the 111 service at all.

 

[trophywench]

The difficulty seems to be the call handler not knowing the right questions and/or the right way to ask them, to get the answers necessary to either make their own clinical judgement or for the algorithm/flow chart they use to make one that's on the right lines in order to judge how urgent it might be.

It strikes me that the patient is expected to know before they even call, how urgent it is, because there's no-one really reliable to ring to ask that, and get a quick yes or no, now. At least 999 ops were - I presume still are - all trained to try to calm folk down when they are panicking - and don't try and ask you questions about ALL symptoms and eg what meds you are on, when eg you can't breathe properly let alone hardly speak.

 

[Ljc]

111grrr . The initial questioning by the call handler were not suitable for the foot problem I had even though I explained fullly about my foot, (yes lefty) I was told I'd get a callback in 6hrs as they were very busy 😱.

 

[Amigo]

The difficulty seems to be the call handler not knowing the right questions and/or the right way to ask them, to get the answers necessary to either make their own clinical judgement or for the algorithm/flow chart they use to make one that's on the right lines in order to judge how urgent it might be.

It strikes me that the patient is expected to know before they even call, how urgent it is, because there's no-one really reliable to ring to ask that, and get a quick yes or no, now. At least 999 ops were - I presume still are - all trained to try to calm folk down when they are panicking - and don't try and ask you questions about ALL symptoms and eg what meds you are on, when eg you can't breathe properly let alone hardly speak.

Jenny I gave them my b/p, my pulse, oxygen levels, temperature, BG level, pre-existing conditions and the risks associated with my leukaemia including having already had sepsis. Also I could barely speak without coughing. Not sure what else I could have told them apart from the IV antibiotics I needed (which I knew incidentally!). Just too much demand on the system it seems to me. The doctor who rang me up hours later was shocking and I had the impression she couldn't care less. She even suggested I try to get over to their walk in Centre at 3am even though I was on the brink of collapse by then. And that's no exaggeration! 😡

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

We rang local out of hours service a couple of months ago (not 111 but whatever the local number is which presumably puts you through to same service) when we thought R had a TIA (thankfully turned out to be a "different kind of migraine" but everyone we spoke to thought TIA until he finally got to consultant neurologist).

We rang at about 10.20pm and were told it sounded like a TIA so R needed to speak to a doctor and they'd call back within an hour, I think, or an hour and a half.

Doctor finally rang at 1.30am and said it sounded like a TIA so R needed medical attention straight away and could he come into the clinic in Gloucester? 😱 R explained that we're the other end of the county, near Swindon, and I don't drive (and if he'd had a TIA he shouldn't be driving). Doctor said she'd try to find someone to collect him.

She rang back at 4.15am and asked how he felt now (fine, but very tired, having been up half the night 🙄) and said that she hadn't found anyone so perhaps it would be best if he saw a GP here as an emergency appointment as soon as the surgery opened (we were very relieved, because Gloucester is a blooming long way, especially if they'd kept him there as I couldn't get there).

So R saw GP here at 10.10am and GP said it sounded like a TIA so he needed a brain scan, and they'd try to find him a lift to Swindon hospital - we expected to have to wait a few more hours, but at about 11.30am an ambulance turned up. Paramedics rushed up the path expecting an emergency and found R feeling perfectly OK and more than a little embarrassed - we'd expected a volunteer in a car. But when he got to hospital and had brain scan the people in A&E told him that the first person he spoke to should have called out an ambulance straight away, as the scan should have been done within an hour of his having the symptoms! A&E doctor and radiologist both thought TIA but couldn't tell for sure because the scan hadn't been done soon enough.

So, not really impressed with our local call handler either, I'm afraid.

 

[Northerner]

That's awful Juliet

Not NHS 111, but I got turned away by 999 ambulance service about 5 years ago - I was very ill and dehydrated, couldn't even keep a sip of water down, blood sugars were high but I had to be ultra-cautious about correcting as I would have been totally unable to treat a hypo. Ketones were sky high. I got pushed from pillar to post with a nurse on the service, to my DSN, to my GP. When I told my consultant he was horrified and said I should have been admitted immediately

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

That's shocking, Alan 😱 - no wonder your consultant was horrified. Glad you survived the experience!