Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to improve the service quality provided by call handlers who respond to NHS 111 and 999 calls; and what funding he plans to allocate to those services in the next five years.
Mr Philip Dunne
The service quality provided by call handlers who respond to 999 and 111 calls is the responsibility of local providers of these services.
Computer-aided dispatch and clinical decision support systems are used to guide call handers through 999 and 111 calls. These systems have embedded clinical governance processes which keep them under continual internal evidence based review.
In the future, the 111 phone number will be the “front door” to a 24/7 integrated urgent care service. It will provide access to a ‘clinical hub’ which offers patients access to a wide range of clinicians supported by access to clinical records.
National Health Service ambulance trusts (who operate 999 call handling services) and providers of NHS111 services are commissioned and funded locally by NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). CCGs work with these providers to take decisions on funding on a yearly basis.
