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NHS England committed to gold standard for NHS 111

 NHS England has today at its board meeting reassured patients that a good NHS 111 service is now operating in most of the country.  

The performance standards which have been introduced for NHS 111 represent a gold standard which the majority of NHS 111 services in England are now meeting, though in some areas performance is still unacceptable especially at weekends.  Some local providers of NHS 111 have not provided the prompt reliable service the public need and want. NHS England’s board is determined to ensure that the public have access to a gold standard NHS111 service wherever they live in England.

The NHS 111 service was introduced to deal with public concern and frustration in accessing NHS care, especially at weekends and out of hours. Calls from landlines and mobile phones are free, and the service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

NHS England has been working with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) who took on the responsibility for commissioning NHS 111 on 1 April 2013 to get the high standard of service patients and the public deserve across the whole of England

Today the board endorsed proposals to set up an external review, to enable us to be best placed to also take forward future complex projects.

Almost 90 percent of the country can now ring 111 to access urgent healthcare services especially out of normal working hours.  In areas where the service is not yet available, patients and the public should continue to ring 0845 46 47 or their own GP’s surgery.  If people do ring 111 in an area where the service is not yet available there will be a message that explains what to do to access urgent healthcare.

3 comments

  1. Mark Pittman says:

    Traditionally, callers to the Out Of Hours GP service, have been kept waiting for hours because of the numbers of patients who require NHSD help, have been excessive.
    These patients were kept in a waiting system, often for many hours before they were called back by the OOH staff. Appointments were then made more often than not for them to attend to the OOH unit.
    Now with the 111 system, that appointment system has been severely limited with the OOH restricting the appointments, and the overflow patients have been sent to inappropriate service providers.This has extended the patient’s care pathway and the care for very ill patients, has been delayed. The 111 operators have been infomed numerous times but are still following computer algorithms and denying any accountability, even though they are aware of the situation. Apparently they have been instructed to default the excessive overflow of ill patients to a doctor-less minor INJURY unit.

  2. Daphne Havercroft says:

    What does “gold standard” mean?

    Where can the public find the data which is the evidence that the majority of 111 services are meeting the “gold standard”?

    I have only used NHS Direct once – on a weekend – and it was excellent – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it………..?

  3. A. Newman says:

    Went to the GPs with my wife on Thurs 28/04/13 knowing they would all dissapear for the extended long Easter weekend.Fobbed off as usual.Saturday 30/04/13 phoned 111 as my wifes health was deteriorating further.We were told a Doctor would call us back.Never heard from them again.Easter Sunday I took my wife to Hospital and she was admitted for 8 days.To quote the Doctor”Her blood salt levels were at a critically dangerous level that could cause Heart failure”. Moral of this – If you want decent Healthcare go to the Hospital,wait for the others and you may end up dead.