"111 service is marvelous"

I am 83 years old and on two occasions I have needed to call the 111 service.

On the first occasion my doctor’s surgery was closed when I was monitoring my blood pressure at home. I thought it was a bit high and I became concerned about it so called 111 for advice. The person who took my call sent someone round to check that I was OK, the paramedic took my blood pressure and thought it was high enough to need to be checked at the hospital. I was taken to the hospital at 10: 00pm and kept in until 3: 00am when they thought the pressure had come down enough not to be concerned about it. This was about a year ago.

On the second occasion in October I had an infection on my leg and called the doctor to see if they could come and see me at home. Unfortunately theu only do home visits for patients who are housebound, I am not housebound but I could not walk with the infection in my leg. On that occasion the 111 people sent a doctor to see me, he was able to give me antibiotics and the infections has now cleared up.

The 111 service is absolutely marvelous.