NHS 111 leads to drop in out of hours activity

Primary care trust cluster board papers reveal that Oxfordshire was slightly behind a key national performance target for the service, with 94 per cent of calls answered within a minute, against a target of 95 per cent.

Two thirds of 111 calls were directed to primary care. Eight per cent led to an ambulance being dispatched, compared with a national average of 11 per cent. Sixty per cent of ambulance attendances were not conveyed to hospital.

Five per cent of calls were directed to attend accident and emergency, against a national average of six per cent.

Board papers said the service would become more efficient with the delivery of two IT “fixes”, due at the beginning of December, to automate the management of patient data taken during the call.

A third improvement, matching patient details with their NHS number, will occur in January.