GPs’ fears as NHS24 call handlers give health advice
FAMILY doctors have attacked NHS24 for allowing call handlers with no medical qualifications to give health advice to patients.
GPs have raised f ears f or patient safety over people being dealt with by call centre workers instead of nurses.
In a startling intervention, they have demanded immediate action.
NHS24 took more than 146,000 calls in January alone and handles medical problems of patients across Scotland when GP surgeries are closed at evenings and weekends.
When it was set up more than a decade ago, the helpline was staffed only by nurses.
Today, call handlers without medical training are the first point of contact, charged with identifying which patients need emergency help and reportedly dealing with minor cases entirely by themselves.
The alarm was raised by the British Medical Association ahead of its conference next week.
Its Ayrshire and Arran local medical committee said it ‘deplores the move by NHS24 to triage patients by non–clinical staff, believes this has implications on patient safety and demands immediate action to stop this happening’.
It is understood that NHS24 is training call handlers to deal with patients suffering from less serious conditions. Instead of being passed to nurses, these patients may only speak to a call handler who can provide ‘self-care’ advice.
The conference motion reveals the concerns of doctors over this approach after cases in which NHS call handlers have put patients in danger by failing to recognise the seriousness of their symptoms.
In addition, it is believed that people calling the 111 number are also being sent to overstretched A&E departments unnecessarily.
Papers released by the BMA in advance of its Local Medical Committee Conference raise particular concerns from GPs in Fife. They say out-of-hours care is only sustainable if NHS 24 becomes ‘less risk averse’. The doctors’ representation says of NHS24 staff: ‘Their policies of advising inappropriate face to face consultations is overwhelming GP visiting services, the Scottish Ambulance Service and accident and emergency departments countrywide.’
The warning was yesterday backed by the Scottish Conservatives, whose health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: ‘It is right that, when people need medical advice, someone with the necessary training is on available to help. The whole system has to be looked at again and any overhaul must involve diverting people from A&E when they don’t have to be there.’
NHS24 medical director Professor George Crooks said: ‘We can assure the safety and effectiveness of NHS24 services to the patients who call us.
‘The majority of NHS 24 calls are triaged by clinical staff, including senior nurses, pharmacists and GPs. All other staff delivering frontline services operate under very close clinical supervision.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘While the introduction of the 111 number has seen an increase in call volumes, NHS24 i s working to mitigate these pressures and continues to deliver the best service possible.
‘A national review of primary care out-of-hours services is under way.’