Agenda item

Report attached.

The Committee was advised that the new NHS 111 service would go live on 1 August 2018. The service, which had been procured jointly by the North East London CCGs, would be provided by London Ambulance Service. Competent health advice would be provided by phone or on line and callers could still be booked to see a clinician if necessary. Translators and Typetalk facilities for deaf callers would also be available.

Pathways has been developed to refer people back to their GP if necessary and a clinical assessment service would be based within NHS 111, comprising multi-disciplinary staff. It was planned that, shortly after the launch date, NHS 111 clinicians would have access to a patient’s health care records (with a patient’s consent). This would facilitate a quick transfer to a mental health assessment, should this be required.

The new system would allow consistency of approach through a single contact number. The service would be monitored closely with a patient participation group also being established. National metrics on e.g. rates of abandoned calls would be collected as would local metrics. Any instances of misdiagnosis would be monitored and investigated but it was felt that overall outcomes should improve under the new service.

A monthly Clinical Governance Group covered the whole of London and allowed learning to be shared and patient experience surveys would be undertaken.

The representative of Healthwatch Havering felt that views of NHS 111 differed across the local boroughs with, for example, lower use of the service being seen in Havering, where more people tended to present themselves at Queen’s Hospital A&E. There was therefore a need to persuade more people in Havering to use NHS 111 and this did not seem to have been addressed thus far. Officers accepted that A&E departments should advise people to call 111 where appropriate and the service would shortly be advertised in A&E.

Health advisors at NHS 111 undertook a six week training course and had their calls audited before being allowed to go live on the system. There had not been any instances at NHS 111 of missed cases of e.g. sepsis. Advisers were supported and calls could be referred on to the Clinical Assessment Service as required. It was possible that skype calls could be introduced to the service in the medium term. The clinical decision software used by the service would also be more sophisticated in the future.

Staff would be transferred from the current service provider under the TUPE regulations and it was noted that the London Ambulance Service already provided the NHS 111 service in South West London. The service call centre would be based in Barking. There would be a ratio of 1 clinician to four call handlers and this would include other clinicians such as pharmacists. This was considered an adequate level of cover and the processes for establishing them could be shared with the Committee.

It was agreed that an update on the performance of the NHS 111 service should be taken by the Committee in a year’s time. It was further agreed that the clerk should seek to arrange a visit for the Committee to the NHS 111 call centre.