Minister admits NHS advice line failings

Health officials have launched an investigation into the line after a number of potentially serious incidents, including three deaths, have been linked to the service.

Patients have complained about calls going unanswered and poor advice being given.

Speaking at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence annual conference in Birmingham, the Health Minister admitted that part of the service “fell down”.

“There is no use denying that the 111 service got off to a very disappointing start,” he said.

“We are worried about services in the south west and the south east coast but the rest of the country – we have got 90 per cent of the country covered by 111 – is experiencing a good, if not excellent, service all the time. So we need to get this in proportion.

“We are not happy with those two particular areas and NHS England are gripping it.

“We have been very candid about where NHS 111 fell down, we did not want to duck that.”

The extent of the teething problems was laid bare yesterday when official figures revealed a stark rise in abandoned calls.

The number of people who hung up after waiting for more than 30 seconds increased from 6,976 in February to 29,100 in March, according to NHS England figures. The average call length increased from 14.19 minutes in February to almost 18 minutes in March.

However, the number of calls increased by more than 140,000 in the same timeframe.

Last week, leading doctors warned that the “problematic” roll-out of NHS 111 has left patients not knowing where to turn to for help. The Royal College of General Practitioners said patients had “lost confidence” in the new number.

The service – run by 44 individual local bodies across the country – was supposed to be rolled out on April 1, but many of the advice lines were not ready to “go live”. Seven regional bodies are still not ready to start giving advice.