I had cause to use the 111 Service one Friday evening. To say that it was disappointing is an understatement.
As a parent with a crying child in pain, trying to obtain some medical advice from an call centre adviser was an enormous waste of my time. The service was completely inflexible and not fit for purpose.
I believe the flow chart system that the call centre adviser is forced to use is too rigid, there is no listening that goes on and the problems of a 4 year old in pain cannot fit in to this series of questions. From a parents point of view, the number of unnecessary questions prolongs the time before you can obtain any appropriate care in an agonising way. The worst part was that by the time I got through all the unnecessary questions, the outcome was totally inappropriate. Being advised to make an appointment with my GP on Monday (so having to wait all Friday evening, all day Saturday and all day Sunday! ). Quite simply - wrong!
Even when I insisted on speaking to a medical person, she couldn't help and tried to make an out of hours appointment with a doctor. This was not possible and she assured me I would receive a phone call with an appointment from a doctor within a short time - to me this meant around 30-60 minutes. As it turned out, the phone call came some 7 hours after! What a shame we had the predecessor to the 111 service abolished, I think it was a far superior service.
I will be speaking to my local MP about this and my other terrible experiences of the 111 service and I hope that before long it is abolished and it's predecessor reinstated.
"Calling 111 for my 4 year old"
About: South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust / NHS 111 South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust NHS 111 Lewes BN7 2XW
Posted by Disappointed111 (as ),
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