An outraged woman has blasted the NHS as the “no health service” after her sister-in-law was left waiting 10 hours for a call back from its new 111 telephone advice service.

Marie Black, from Ewell, contacted the Epsom Guardian after a disastrous attempt to obtain advice from the helpline for non-life-threatening medical problems, which replaced NHS Direct in Surrey last week.

Last month, the British Medical Association wrote to Sir David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS, calling for a delay in the service’s launch, following reports of severe problems in the areas 111 had been trialled.

Patients were left waiting hours for call backs or were not able to get through to an operator.

At midnight on Saturday, Ms Black’s sister-in-law, who was experiencing sharp pains in her head, called her GP surgery and was transferred to 111.

After waiting on hold for 20 minutes, her symptoms were assessed by the call handler, who told her she would receive a call back within two hours.

No call back was received during the night.

Ms Black called again at 8.30am on Sunday, was put on hold for 30 minutes, and told the service had been “extremely busy”.

The call handler could not find a record of Ms Black’s sister-in-law’s previous assessment and Ms Black was told she could not speak to a
superviser. 

Concerned for her sister-in-law, Ms Black took her to Epsom Hospital’s accident and emergency (A&E), which she said was “inundated with people who had had the same experience”.

Ms Black said: “This is a new system, which after five days is obviously inefficient and not working. Surely it should not have gone live until staff were trained. 

“Enough pressure is put on Epsom’s A&E without added pressure from an incompetent service. Clearly the NHS now means ‘no health service’.”

Dr Peter Stott, the clinical governance lead on 111 for Surrey, apologised to Ms Black for what had happened.

He said that while the service is “functioning very well” during the week, there are problems at weekends when the service receives 5,000 calls a day – 60 per cent of them during the peak times of 8am to 10am at its two call centres.

He said: “Everyone is learning.  It’s a new system and call handlers are being supported by GPs, nurses and paramedics in the call centres. 

“We are changing rotas to ensure more people are there to answer calls at peak times. 

“But if it’s not an urgent problem then people could put off calling for an hour or two.”

Dr Stott said the situation at A&Es is being monitored and people could also call PALs on 01372 897888 to report difficulties with the 111 service.

Epsom Councillor Colin Taylor, a member of Surrey County Council’s health scrutiny committee, said: “It’s a good idea to have a separate service, but if you’re going to have that then it has to be reliable.

“The last thing we want is for somebody to suffer because they are expecting a call back and didn’t get one.”

The number of patients attending Epsom A&E jumped by 10 per cent last weekend, but a spokeswoman said it is too early to tell whether that was due to the 111 service, or if it was part of a trend.

Have you experienced similar issues with NHS 111?  Contact Hardeep Matharu on the newsdesk on 0208 722 6346, email hmatharu@london.newsquest.co.uk or leave a comment below.