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"NHS24 - very slow and poor"

About: NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service)

(as a service user),

Having waited (in agony) for my call to be answered by NHS24 and taking time to give my details, I then had to wait some more for this to be passed to someone who can do something with that information. Then I had to wait for a call back to give me an out of hours GP appointment in 3 hours time. As part of that discussion, I was told that if things get any worse I should call them back. The process was difficult enough the first time round without repeating it again in an even worse situation!

Even when I got to the GP they were unable to cater for my situation. This was not the GP's fault - In my view, I should have been redirected to the emergency department by NHS24, if that system had been fit for practice.

Is it any wonder that Emergency Departments are so busy, when in my experience, the NHS24 service was so inefficient? I'm sure the individuals are well meaning and good at their jobs, the system itself is poor though, which is disappointing to have to report.

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Responses

Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 2 years ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24
Submitted on 08/09/2022 at 13:00
Published on Care Opinion at 13:00


picture of Shona Lawrence

Dear patients dad

Thank you for sharing your experience on Care Opinion. I’m sorry to learn you were unwell and hope you have received the required care and are doing much better.

I read your story with concern and your level of frustration is clear. I’m sorry to learn of this.

Our service is designed to ensure patients and callers are managed as safely and effectively as possible. Following the capture of the demographics and call reason, advice will be sought from a Clinical Supervisor on how best to manage a patient’s care.

We do appreciate that callers who phone 111 can be in pain, anxious, worried or upset about their health or that of a loved one. Unfortunately, there are times when access to the service takes longer than we would like. We appreciate how frustrating the wait times can be for callers and assure you this is one of our top priorities. The demand for our service has risen exponentially in recent times with calls offered to the service in excess of 2 million last year. We work hard to continually forecast predicted demand on the service to try to minimise wait times. We have recruited additional staff and have opened a further contact centre recently in Dundee. We also provide indicative wait times on our phone menu so that callers at least have an expectation of the potential wait time when calling. Signposting on our phone menu to NHS inform, where people can obtain health information online, also assists.

However, it is absolutely appreciated that an extended wait time is not a good experience. Especially, as you say, when advised to re-contact the service should symptoms change or worsen.

From what you have shared, at the time of your call to us, we considered your symptoms required further assessment by a Healthcare Professional. I am sorry they were unable to assist your situation. I see you consider NHS 24 should have referred you to the Emergency Department. It would be helpful to review your contact with 111 to determine how this was managed. If you would be kind enough to contact me directly, then I would arrange for this to happen. You can call me on 07814 299944 or email Patient.Experience@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk. We always welcome opportunities to review the care we provide, therefore I do hope to hear further from you.

I wish you well meantime.

Kind regards

Shona

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Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 2 years ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24
Submitted on 14/09/2022 at 13:41
Published on Care Opinion at 13:41


picture of Shona Lawrence

Hi I

Thank you so much for contacting me directly. It was a pleasure to speak with you. I was sorry to learn of your recent surgery and I hope your health continues to improve. I also hope you manage to minimise your intake of the sweeter things in life!

It was good to have an opportunity to hear from you on how it felt to navigate our system. I hope my responses concerning the number of calls managed by the service, our hard work in relation to staffing levels and in managing calls to an endpoint, thereby mitigating against callers waiting on a return call from us to progress their care, was helpful.

I took on board your comments, specifically in relation to the information contained within our phone menu etc. I will share this with the appropriate team.

I have asked for a review of your call to us. This will allow us an opportunity to determine if there is anything we could have done differently. Such reviews are welcomed by us, so thanks for providing your details to allow us to progress this.

Best wishes and take care meantime.

Shona

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