NHS 111 sees huge leap in demand in face of coronavirus

NHS 111 received nearly one call a minute from Leicestershire and Rutland, as staff worked to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

There were 9,092 calls to NHS 111 last week from the Leicestershire and Rutland area in the week ending March 1.

That was up 8% compared to the week before, when there were 8,404 calls to the advice line.

It’s also up by a third from 6,626 calls in the same week last year. The jump in demand means more callers are having to wait more than a minute to speak to an advisor.

Last week, 60% of calls in Leicestershire and Rutland were answered within 60 seconds.

That was down from 74% the week before and 83% in the same week last year.

There was also a big rise in the number of calls being abandoned after at least 30 seconds of waiting - up from 130 in the week to February 23 to 308 in the week ending March 1.

Overall, NHS 111 answered 7,261 calls last week in the area, up from 7,152 a week before.

Most of those given advice last week were recommended to visit primary or community care like GPs and dentists, with 3,961 callers given this advice.

There was a week-on-week drop in the number being told to go to A&E, down from 412 to 376, and a small rise in numbers sent an ambulance, up from 804 to 877.

However, there was a bigger rise in the number of callers recommended to not contact another service but given selfcare advice, up from 1,138 to 1,410 in the week ending March 1.

An NHS spokesperson said: “NHS staff are working round the clock to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, with 111 services dealing with over 120,000 more calls than the same week last year.

“That’s why we’re already recruiting 500 additional initial call responders to answer up to 20,000 more 111 calls every day, with further staffing increases in train, providing a new online service which can provide advice at the touch of a button, and boosting the availability of clinical advice for those who need it.”

Across England, NHS 111 services answered 340,702 calls in the week ending March 1 – over 22,000 more than the previous week, and over 51,000 more than the same week last year. The number of calls ‘placed’ – meaning the times people dialled 111 – was 442,675. This is almost 80,000 more than the previous week, and over 120,000 more than the same week last year.

The percentage of calls answered within 60 seconds by the service dropped to 58% in the week ending March 1, down from 77% a week before.

There’s been a drop in the percentage of callers being sent to A&E, down from 12.7% of triaged calls to 11.9%, while the percentage of calls where an ambulance was sent dropped from 9.3% to 8.3%.