Shropshire doctors bail out 111 NHS health hotline
Doctors in Shropshire have been forced to step in and bail out the Government's fledging NHS 111 advice line, which is failing to cope with the volume of calls from patients.
The new national advice line, manned by non-clinical staff in a Birmingham call centre, was launched in the county last week to provide non-emergency, out-of-hours medical help for patients.
But since its 'soft launch' on March 19, bosses have admitted the service has encountered 'operational and technical issues' – with calls now being diverted to the county's out-of-hours ShropDoc service, run by 300 local GPs.
Today local GPs hit out at the NHS 111 advice line which they say had led to an rise in ambulance call-outs.
Star comment: 111 advice line is burden on NHS
One ShropDoc GP, who did not wish to be named, said: "Patients are waiting an hour to get through and the people on the phone are going through a computer tick-list of symptoms.
"More ambulances have been sent out and it is putting a strain on an already over-strained A&E service.
"The Clinical Commissioning Group has stepped in and said it is not safe for patients and asked ShropDoc to take back control."
Wayne Bartlett, NHS111 regional project director in the West Midlands said more call handlers had been recruited to meet demand.
He said: "We have encountered some operational and technical issues which we have immediately responded to.
"Our first priority is to ensure patient safety is not compromised and we have immediately acted and implemented measures.
"These include working in collaboration with NHS Direct who deliver the service and with West Midlands Ambulance to ensure calls are handled appropriately and safely at all times.
"Additional call handlers are being brought in to underpin the service and we are monitoring call levels to ensure we have capacity to meet the demand."
