Good call, Doc.

Hangin’ on…111

‘Pulse Today’ is becoming required reading for me, except not being a Doctor, I can’t access it. Well, sometimes I can. So this (7^th June 13) is highly edited by me (sorry Pulse – why not open up full access to us mere mortals?)

NHS England has been briefing the press on how well the new non-urgent 111 service is working – not so well as all that, according to Pulse;

“Figures released today show 87% of NHS 111 calls were answered within 60 seconds in April – short of the 95% target – and only 47% of callers were being called back by a clinician within ten minutes, despite NHS England setting a target of 100%.”

Meanwhile in another two areas it has been going wrong;

“Commissioners in Leicestershire and Devon have said that they will rollout the service by October and September respectively despite NHS England pushing back its original June deadline to ‘the end of summer’.

A statement from the three CCGs in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland said the service in their area will now launch in autumn 2013, rather than this month as planned, as ‘patient safety is fundamental’.

It added: ‘The programme of rigorous testing covering every aspect of the service will continue over the summer months and will be followed by a programme of live system testing in September. There will then be a carefully managed and progressive roll-out of the service across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, which will be completed by the end of October.’”

Meanwhile;

“Dr Tim Burke, chair of Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG, said Devon would learn from the issues in other parts of the country.

He said: ‘We are not working to a deadline, we are working to getting it right and taking the time to ensure it offers the best service to our population.’ “

So thankfully, there are a few Doctors who are prepared to challenge what is going on, here’s another;

“Dr Peter Holden, a GPC negotiator and a GP in Matlock, Derbyshire, disputed NHS England’s assertion that the service was steadily improving.

He said: ‘The problem is that it has been rolled out too early. It is too early to tell, there isn’t universal coverage and some of the triage decisions are bizarre.

He added: ‘We’re still getting mad dispositions. I saw one at the weekend that had been triaged through pathways, that said “adult with rash, must see GP within two hours”. It got to the point where they are so petrified that rash could equal meningitis that it didn’t take into account the fact that she had the rash for a week.’ “

It seems that even though the NHS England deadline for starting the 111 service is now (June), it looks as though there is no realistic sanction against commissioning groups who refuse to risk their patients – as long as it’s on clinical grounds.

Good call, Doc!

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home:  helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.com