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Care Opinion

111 - ineffective, and rude

Posted By Servuce user - notts

"111 - ineffective, and rude"

About: DHU Healthcare CIC / NHS 111 East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust / Emergency ambulance

(as a service user),

Daughter became unwell after doctors closed, mid week. Took forever to get through to 111 who cover Out Of Hours Doctors in my area.

First advisor who answered was polite, this is where the positivity ended. Was told someone would call me back within 30 minutes. When they hadn’t called back after 1.5 hours I called them, faced another 30 minute wait and was spoken to by an extremely rude, patronising person who lacked empathy or even basic manners. Continually spoke over me  and kept telling me to calm down when I queried anything.

They advised me an ambulance had been called as 111 hadn’t been able to call back in time and that 111 had closed the call and couldn’t help further. This was despite me having repeatedly said when I initially called that my child didn’t need an ambulance (or I would have  called one myself not waited 40 minutes to get through to 111) she has a condition and usually has a certain medication for this.

The advisor rudely told me there was nothing they could do and told me to call 999 myself. There is apparently no way of 111 cancelling ambulances that they have requested despite knowing it wasn’t needed.

I was then left in the ludicrous situation of having still received zero help from 111 and now also having to cancel an ambulance that I hadn’t requested. What a total waste of my time, when I was already dealing with a sick child and when Ambulance resources are already so stretched.  

111 demonstrated they have little or no respect for patient views or opinions and to be honest, very little care for the welfare of my child.

The advisor told me they had closed the call and I would need to start triage all over again or could wait and speak to GP the next day … this is now almost 2 hours since my initial call.

I was then, at my insistence , put through  to someone else who eventually re opened my call but only after I had to give all my details again. Daughter was seen , albeit over 9 hours later.

In future, I will take 111 out of the equation and either go straight to a and e / urgent care centre or try and wait until the next day.

Feels like 111 contract in the Nottingham area was given to the lowest bidder, any one I speak to  agrees that 111, massively overinflates their own view of the quality of what they offer whilst consistently under delivering.  

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Responses

Response from Sarah Connerton, Patient Experience Manager, East Midlands Ambulance Service 15 months ago
Sarah Connerton
Patient Experience Manager,
East Midlands Ambulance Service

Submitted on 03/02/2023 at 16:35
Published on Care Opinion at 16:35

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. We do hope your daughter is feeling much better now in what must have been a scary time for you all. We are very sorry that, after contacting NHS 111 you were asked to personally contact 999 to then cancel an ambulance (that you had not actually requested), and that was requested by NHS 111 after they couldn't contact you.

We very much appreciate calls to cancel ambulance crews if they are no longer needed, or if callers decide to make their own way to hospital or other community services for help/support. We do understand that sometimes, due to existing pathways, NHS 111 may request an ambulance which may not necessarily be in line with a caller's expectations. Please do not ever worry about contacting our Trust to cancel a crew as we would much rather you do this and stop a resource travelling unnecessarily.

We work hard with NHS 111 to review such situations and together, we aim to provide the best service possible to the public. The most important outcome is that your daughter did not require an ambulance and hopefully now feels well. We thank you for taking time to cancel the ambulance request and also share your experience.

You may wish to contact NHS 111 directly to explain your experience in more detail if you wish for them to respond in full to you. If we can be of any further assistance please do contact our Patient Experience team, with as much detail as you can (e.g. date, time and location).. You may contact them via telephone on 0333 012 4216 10am-2pm weekdays (or leave a voicemail if you wish) or email emas.pals@nhs.net.

Best wishes, Sarah Connerton, Patient Experience Manager, East Midlands Ambulance Service

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Response from Judith Brown, Patient and Public Engagement Lead, Corporate Governance, DHU Health Care CIC 15 months ago
Judith Brown
Patient and Public Engagement Lead, Corporate Governance,
DHU Health Care CIC

Submitted on 03/02/2023 at 18:07
Published on Care Opinion at 18:07

Good evening,

Thank you for sharing your comments/feedback regarding your recent experience with DHU and the NHS111 service in your area when your daughter was poorly. I am sorry to read that your experience was both frustrating and poor and that your expectations of the NHS111 service were not met on this occasion.

As my colleague Sarah @ EMAS has said in her response we work together to review incidents and complaints and always aim to provide the best service possible for our patients.

We would appreciate and encourage you to contact our NHS111 Clinical Governance team directly either via telephone on 0300 1000 407 (should you get the answerphone message then please leave your name and contact details and a member of the team will call you back within office hours – Mon-Fri, 0900-1700) or via email @ DHUL.clinicalgovernance@nhs.net with as much detail as you can (e.g., dates and times) so that we can investigate the specific concerns you have raised either formally as a complaint or informally as feedback. The team will then be able to take more details from you so they can fully investigate your concerns and why this has happened, and feedback and it can also help us to better understand and aid us in learning how we can do better to stop anyone else having a poor experience in the future as you have clearly had on this occasion.

I do hope that your daughter has now received the care and treatment she required and is feeling much better now.

Best wishes, Judith Brown - Patient Experience & EDI Lead and AIS Champion, (DHU Healthcare)

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