I am concerned at 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.
Disappointingly, 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.
In recent months, I have been contacted by constituents who have struggled to access the service, which was set up to deal with urgent non-life-threatening healthcare needs and is now the access route to GP Out of Hours services and those seeking emergency NHS dentistry.
I have recently written to the Welsh Health Minister urging her to take action over the performance of the NHS 111 service in Wales. I highlighted the case of one of my constituents who made four attempts to access the service on one day.
Upon raising this situation with NHS 111 Wales, they confirmed that:
“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.’”
These waits are unacceptable. A copy of my letter to the Welsh Health Minister is available at the bottom of this page. You can also see my appearance on the ITV Wales report on this issue at the top of this page.
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.
Such a slow, unreliable service is going to place greater pressure on A&E departments and cost lives. I hope the Welsh Health Minister recognises the urgent need to address these issues and ensures that the improvements needed are made before it is too late.
Please do get in touch with me if you have experienced similar issues with NHS 111, and I would be more than happy to make the appropriate representations on your behalf.
