Developing how NHS111 helps you

NHS111, ambulance services, GP services and community services are working even closer together to provide local people with the right care in the right place at the right time.

Not everybody needs the same help when they call NHS111. One person may want to know where their local pharmacy is, another may need a community nurse and someone else may need to speak to a doctor.

Working together we are developing access to healthcare professionals who can advise on the most appropriate clinical care, including callers with mental health problems, medication requirements and children’s health issues.

We have also introduced NHS111 online as another way of using the service to make it easier for local people to get the urgent advice and support they need.

We asked local people for their views, through an online survey, to help us consider how we can deliver the best possible service.

The key themes from this engagement programme were respondents:

• Value receiving advice from a clinician, especially one who can provide the specialist advice they need
• Think it is helpful to speak to a clinician before an ambulance is sent to them or they are advised to go to A&E, though a number of respondents raised concerns about this potentially delaying how quickly someone receives the care they need
• The majority of respondents think it is important that NHS111 staff, with their consent, are able to access and update their medical records
• The vast majority also think it is important that NHS111 can directly book an appointment with their GP or another NHS service
• Just over half of respondents were aware of NHS111with just over half also saying they would use it in the future.

Further details are available in an engagement report which sets out the survey results.