Meeting the demand of 111 for primary care services

The National Health Service (NHS) 111 service aims to improve the public’s access to urgent healthcare and help people use the right service first time including self-care. Approximately 55% of all NHS 111 calls result in a referral to a primary care service. However, there has been little scrutiny of the ability of primary care provision (particularly out-of-hours) to meet the demand of the NHS 111 service. If a timely service cannot be provided to patients, it is possible that this will result in patients calling 999 or attending emergency departments (ED) directly.

The aim of this study is to explore the patient journey for callers who are given a primary care disposition following a call to NHS 111 and the ability of primary care services to meet relevant NHS 111 call dispositions.

Further contact

For more information on this project, contact Richard Pilbery at r.pilbery@nhs.net