Nurses too busy to oversee call centre workers

UNTRAINED 111 call handlers are being left to cope with patients without any advice from nurses so that the service can hit targets for answering calls, the Mail investigation has revealed.

The handlers – who are not medically trained – are supposed to have a nurse or other clinician present at all times to help them judge whether patients need urgent help.

But the Mail has learned that nurses are drafted in to act as call handlers themselves when call centres are at risk of missing their targets.

The practice has led staff to express ‘concerns over patient safety’ to bosses – but insiders say it is still going on when the call centre statistics suggest that targets are going to be missed.

The practice has emerged as a result of targets laid down by Public health england.

They judge the success of 111 services largely by whether or not calls are being answered within 60 seconds. Call centres are told they have to meet a formal target of answering 95 per cent of calls in this time.

Bosses at the derbyshire 111 service are said to be ‘obsessed’ with the 95 per cent target. They have repeatedly reminded staff that meeting the target is ‘vitally important to the success and future’ of their contract to carry out 11. however, the target has already been frequently breached this year.

The centre missed the 95 per cent target consistently for six months until March, with the number of calls answered in time falling as low as 73 per cent over the winter months.

Some patients were left waiting more than 17 minutes, with one waiting more than 29. Weekly fig- ures also suggest the service was continuing to miss its targets from April to June.

Such performance meant the service was at risk of losing the 111 contract.

As a result, bosses began moving clinically trained staff such as nurses – who are supposed to be on hand to help with complex cases – on to answering calls ‘in times of poor stats.’

This means the call handlers have no one to turn to if they are in need of urgent advice, because the nurses are always on the phone.

Concerns were raised by a member of staff to bosses during a meeting in May this year. reporting back to colleagues in an email sent after the meeting, he wrote: ‘I had a lot of backing from team leaders, nurse advisers and others.’

In response, one of the directors of derbyshire health United, Stephen Bateman, is said to have agreed to ‘look at’ the practice.

however, it is said to continue.