Vale of Clwyd MP Dr James Davies has sent a letter to the Welsh Health Minister urging her to take action over the “poor performance” of the NHS 111 service in Wales.
The 111 service was finally introduced by the Welsh Government in North Wales in June 2021. At the start of the pandemic, North Wales and some other parts of Wales had been the only areas within Great Britain where the 111 service was yet to be made available.
In recent months James has been contacted by a number of constituents who have struggled to access the service, which was set up to deal with urgent healthcare needs that aren’t life-threatening, and which is now the access route to GP Out of Hours services.
In his letter to the Minister, he highlights the case of constituent, Helen Melvin, who made four attempts to access the service on December 4th.
He states:
“I have recently been contacted by one of my constituents who experienced difficulties getting in contact with NHS 111 while at home in North Wales.
“Having asked 111 (Wales) to investigate this matter, they confirmed the extensive waits my constituent experienced while trying to gain advice from 111. Indeed, they said:
‘Our records confirm that XXX tried to access the 111 Service on 4 occasions on the 4 December 2022. As part of the investigation, the calls were audited. Audits assist the Trust in recognising whether there is a need for further training and to ensure that all calls are dealt with appropriately.
‘Our records confirm that XXX attempted to access the NHS 111 service on the 4 December 2022 at 08:40hrs. It has been identified that the call was abandoned by the caller after 31 minutes.
‘Our records confirm that a second call was attempted on the 4 December 2022 at 09:57hrs, the call was abandoned by the caller after 1 hour 11 seconds.
‘Our records confirm that a third call was attempted on the 4 December 2022 at 14:29hrs and the call was abandoned by the caller after 3 minutes. “Our records confirm that a fourth call was attempted on the 4 December 2022 at 16:08hrs and the call was abandoned by the caller after 1 hour 26 minutes.’”
James continued:
“As I am sure you will appreciate, the waits that my constituent experienced while trying to access the 111 service are unacceptable. 111 have stated that these waiting times occurred owing to unprecedented demand on the service in December.
“However, the performance of 111 in Wales has been consistently lagging behind the performance of the same service in England. There is a trend in poorer service in Wales than England in relation to waiting times for 111 that can be tracked back to April 2022, when the publication of data resumed after the pandemic.
“As you know, 111 was not in operation in North Wales prior to the pandemic. There is no data published in Wales for average call answer wait time as per England and I would encourage you to publish this to help drive up standards.
“I would be most grateful if you could please look into the matter as a priority to determine why the performance of the 111 service has been so poor.”
James added:
“Nobody should have to spend an hour and half on the phone trying to get through to NHS 111 when they are in urgent need of medical assistance.
"Only yesterday I was contacted by a constituent whose seven year old grandson had to be taken to A&E because of the failings of the 111 service. It took her over 40 minutes to get through to speak to someone, and then another five hours for further contact, by which time her grandson was in so much pain that his father took him to the hospital.
“Such a slow, unreliable service is going to place greater pressure on A&E departments, as the case I've just highlighted demonstrates, and cost lives. I hope the Health Minister recognises the urgent need to address these issues and ensures that the improvements needed are made before it is too late.”
