"111 and NUCC"

I have not used NUCC before but over New Year had to contact this service 3 times! Each time this was done through an initial call to the 111 service.

The first referral for my grandson was dealt with quickly and efficiently.

The second for my baby granddaughter on New Year's Eve at 7-30 pm, was stressful.

This was because the advisor who took the 111 call did not know whether the UCC was open and insisted on sending out an ambulance to take her to Kings Mill A&E.

This was totally inappropriate.

After a series of conversations and confused information with 111 and the ambulance service, neither of which knew whether UCC was open, we all agreed that we should take the baby to UCC to see if it was open as it was unlikely that an ambulance would be available in the next few hours.

UCC was open and empty apart from one patient. My granddaughter was quickly assessed, diagnosed and treated by empathetic and efficient staff.

I had to ring 111 after injuring my hand in the first week of this year.

Once again the 111 advisor could not tell me whether there were facilities at the hospital to X-ray and decided that I should go to the doctor and they would know.

She had to make a referral to the doctor so that I could make an appointment that day, the doctor would then refer me to 111 if the facilities were there to assess my injury.

Perhaps all these examples indicate that details of the facilities at UCC should be included in the training of 111 staff.

This could save innumerable unnecessary visits to the A&E departments of the main hospitals and take pressure off an overloaded ambulance service without any increase cost to the NHS.