Phil Willis has praised the 111 service in York for the excellent service he received recently. Speaking in the House of Lords yesterday he said:
On June 9 I had reason to call 111 because I was having a heart attack.
The response from 111 was not only excellent in York – not only at the same time did they call the paramedics, but they had me in hospital within 25 minutes to an absolutely superb accident and emergency.
He was responding to a Private Notice Question posed by a Labour peer: “To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they became aware of NHS Direct’s concerns about the 111 service; what action they took; and what action they will now take to ensure the public can have confidence in out of hours advice services.”
The question itself arose from the news that NHS Direct wants to pull out of its contract to provide 111 services in nine areas, which together serve one third of the population in England. It seems that the volume of calls was substantially less than they were expecting, so they were heading for a deficit of £26 million by the end of this financial year.
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4 Comments
As far as I can see the NHS 111 service is provided in Yorkshire by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust in partnership with the community-owned out of hours care provider Local Care Direct..
Sounds like a better possibility for joined up thinking and appropriate advice than NHS Direct appears to be….
Astonishing…that his Lordship apparently did not know that 999 is the number to call for a suspected heart attack (or stroke, or many other emergencies). That is not the purpose of 111 !!!
Anecdotes aren’t considered sufficient basis for judging the success of a medical intervention…
David Rogers
Heart attacks, strokes and TIAs (mini-strokes) can give rise to a large number of different symptoms (some shared with other conditions), so although they are mostly 999 material, the sufferer and those around them may not know what is happening to them, and may, perfectly reasonably, go to their GP or call a 111 service. Hopefully the 111 service has the bigger picture and quickly refers them to 999.