MORE PATIENTS BEING SENT FOR EMERGENCY CARE VIA NON-URGENT 111 NUMBER

Non-emergency Call handlers are more likely to send you to A and E in the North East, than elsewhere the country.

A new report reveals calls to the 111 number have been rising, with 17 percent of patients in the North East transferred to an ambulance.

But Paul Liversidge, CEO of the North East Ambulance Service who run the phone line here, says this is a good thing, and means the system is working;

“We’re not blocking up hospitals, the capacity of the hospital staff is being used appropriately,

“Patients who do not need to be there are aren’t waiting excessive amounts of time to be seen.”

Research has shown the service has prevented thousands of people unnecessarily visiting A+E or calling ambulances.

Paul tells us the service takes in almost a million calls a year from across the North East;

“80 per cent of those calls will be transferred to an alternative service that doesn’t involve either an ambulance or indeed, A+E.”

The researchers found the proportion of patients sent to emergency services has also risen, in its first years 18-19% of patients were sent to emergency care, a figure which has now  increased to 20-22%. The think tank estimated this means 20,000 more people a month are sent to emergency services than would be if NHS 111 kept to its original pattern.

Meanwhile there were high levels of variation noted across the country with patients in some regions more likely than others to be passed along to ambulatory care.

In North East England during 2016, 17% of callers were transferred to an ambulance compared to 8% in South Essex.

This is a very high level of variation, and it is a problem for emergency services and patients if some areas are too eager or too reluctant to send an ambulance,'' the authors wrote.

They also found there is a higher number of people sent to ambulance services instead of A&E.

The researchers added: This is the opposite of what happens with patients in general, where far more people attend A&E than are despatched in an ambulance.

It does lend some plausibility to the suggestion that NHS 111 is too risk averse with people who have more urgent problems.''

However, surveys conducted on people who have used the help line have revealed it may have prevented millions from going to A&E or calling for an ambulance.

Around 45% polled said without the line they would have gone to their nearest emergency department or called for an ambulance but once they call only around 20% are sent to these services.