A paper submitted to Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) governing body makes it clear the NHS111 non-emergency telephone service which replaced NHS Direct is still not functioning to specification.
While acknowledging improvements made by the private company Harmoni over the past year, the CCG officer states: “We remain engaged with our provider of NHS111 in order to rectify some of the recent performance shortfalls evident in the delivery of this service.”
One area of concern is shown in the March figures for calls passed on to a clinical adviser while the caller is on the line rather than by phoning the caller back.
The target for these calls – known as ‘warm transfers’ – is 98 per cent of callers. During March only 68.49 per cent of callers needing to be passed on were transferred during their call.
A main problem is retaining staff. A meeting in March was told by Harmoni this was largely down to’ staff performance issues’: “It was noted that four out of 32 Clinical Advisers had recently left Harmoni and that there was a recruitment freeze whilst staff consultations were ongoing.”
Asked whether this freeze would result in clinical risks, Harmoni said the only impact was expected to be on warm transfers and ‘a possible rise in ambulance call out rates
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