Tuesday 30 July

The future of NHS 111 service was thrown into doubt yesterday when NHS Direct, one of the largest providers, said it was pulling out of the phone line because of the time each call is taking to handle. NHS Direct initially won 11 of the 46 regional contracts for the service, covering 34% of the population. It said it could no longer afford to carry on with the urgent line after finding that calls took more than twice as long as predicted. No alternatives have yet been found for where NHS Direct runs the service, but health chiefs say they are optimistic that local ambulance trusts would be able to step in without patients being affected.
Source: Royal College of Nursing News Alert - Category: Nursing Source Type: news