NHS 111 to hire more ex-medics and WFH staff
NHS 111 will let more staff work from home and recruit more retired doctors as part of an overhaul of the service, health chiefs have said.
Officials will also consider whether those recruited to the telephone service could undergo less training, insisting any changes would be made only if they are “safe and appropriate”.
The changes will come alongside an “extensive review” in an effort to reduce the number of patients directed to over-stretched A&E departments.
Health officials said the changes would result in more medics being recruited, amid concern that staff without clinical training are dispatching too many ambulances or telling too many patients to go to hospital.
The delivery plan for urgent and emergency care services, published by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, promises an “extensive review of 111 services”, including pilot schemes to encourage the public to use NHS 111 instead of A&E.
Last week, the country’s most senior A&E doctor said NHS 111 was sending too many people to hospital because too few calls were assessed by a properly qualified medical practitioner.
The service has appeared increasingly overwhelmed this winter, with more than half of calls abandoned on some days last month.
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said a lack of clinical input into calls meant that the system “necessarily becomes risk-averse and sends too many people to their GP, ambulance or emergency department”.
He told MPS on the Commons health and social care committee: “In terms of how we manage people who could be looked after elsewhere, the key thing to do is to improve NHS 111.”
Last December, just 44.7 per cent of calls to NHS 111 were assessed by a clinician. Almost one in 10 calls were passed to the ambulance service, with as many patients again told to go to A&E.
Health chiefs have promised a campaign, starting in April, to encourage retired practitioners and those approaching retirement to work for NHS 111, in order to increase the clinical input into the service.