NHS Nottingham City and NHS Lincolnshire have become the second pathfinder site to launch the 111 number for urgent, non-emergency care.
The two primary care trusts make up one of three areas trialling the 111 service which the Department of Health wants to see rolled out across England by 2013. The first service was launched in NHS County Durham and Darlington in August and NHS Luton is expected to follow soon.
The number is intended to reduce confusion among patients about what number to call for urgent, non-emergency care when a 999 call is not necessary. It will replace the 0845 number used by NHS Direct but it is yet unclear what NHS Direct’s role will be following roll-out.
NHS Lincolnshire and NHS Nottingham City said the East Midlands was experiencing year on year increases in 999 calls and accident and emergency attendances and estimated that 25% of calls to 999 were “neither serious nor immediately life threatening”.
John McIvor, chief executive of NHS Lincolnshire, said the health service needed to make it easier for people to receive the right care, quickly and efficiently.
He added: “The new 111 service aims to allocate the most appropriate treatment, depending on the patient’s needs, whilst reducing any unnecessary pressure on A&E and emergency services.”
Call handling and nurse assessment will be delivered by NHS Direct for all 111 calls from Nottingham City and Lincolnshire will calls triaged using NHS Pathways before being passed to the relevant service as identified. This will replace the previous system in which the main call handlers in the East Midlands – East Midlands Ambulance Service and NHS Direct – used different computerised triage systems to assess callers’ needs.
Nick Chapman, chief executive of NHS Direct, said NHS Direct was delighted to be working with the other health organisations in the East Midlands to test how best the 111 service could be delivered there.
He added: “The service is being delivered by NHS Direct working very closely with local GPs from Nottingham Emergency Medical Service, East Midlands Ambulance Service, NHS Nottingham and NHS Lincolnshire, and the East Midlands Strategic Health Authority.”
Dr Ian Trimble, a GP in Nottingham chair of the professional executive committee at NHS Nottingham City, said people should continue to contact the service they needed direct if they already knew the number to call but that the 111 service would help those who did not know what to do when they were ill or in pain.
E added: “We hope that by introducing 111 people in the city will think twice before calling an ambulance or going to A&E when it’s not a life-threatening emergency.”
NHS Lincolnshire and NHS Nottingham City said all NHS organisations had agreed to contribute to an electronic skills-based directory of services which for the first time would provide a comprehensive database to find what services are available, their location and their capacity and skill to deal with a patient’s urgent care need.
The two NHS organisations said that during the 12 month testing phase the 111 service would focus on urgent healthcare needs but the electronic directory would include details of urgent social care services that people may need to be signposted to from 111.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley said the pilot in NHS Nottingham City and NHS Lincolnshire would help the DH understand what model worked best for patients and delivered value for money.