Exclusive: Delay to 111 go live in third of country

The new non-emergency telephone number was due to have been rolled out across the country by today, replacing NHS Direct’s 0845 number, under a target set by the Department of Health.

However, NHS Direct has been asked to continue to provide the service in 17 areas, including West Midlands and South East Coast, due to concerns about readiness, HSJ understands.

In most of these areas, NHS 111 has been “soft launched”, so has begun receiving out of hours calls, but will not progress to full launch and take over calls to NHS Direct’s 0845 number until after Easter.

As of this morning about 30 per cent of the country in terms of population will be retaining the 0845 number although the situation is still changing.

The problems were revealed by HSJ asking the commissioners responsible for 111 services about their readiness.

Most commissioners facing delays told HSJ it was due to concern about introducing a new service so close to the four day Easter bank holiday weekend which is usually one of the busiest times of year for NHS out of hours and emergency services.

Most areas expect to launch fully by mid April. However, in Cornwall, where the contract was awarded to NHS Direct, full launch has been delayed until 23 May. A handful of other areas, including Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset and Gloucestershire and Swindon, where the service will be provided by Harmoni, were unable to confirm planned go live dates.

Earlier this month Royal United Hospital Bath asked other local healthcare providers to call it ahead of referring patients due to the “extreme pressure” put on it by the launch of NHS 111, while Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust has also previously blamed the NHS Pathways call handling system for an increase in accident and emergency attendances.

The counties of Devon and Leicestershire and Rutland had previously been granted a three month extension to their introduction date.

The government has faced repeated calls to slow down the roll out after then health secretary Andrew Lansley announced in 2010 the service would be rolled out by 1 April 2013. As this date fell on Easter Monday the DH bought forward the launch date to March 21.

Health minister Earl Howe said: “To ensure that patients get the best care and treatment, we are giving some areas more time to go live with NHS 111 while we carry out thorough testing to ensure that those services are reliable. The NHS Direct 0845 4647 service will continue to be available to callers in areas where the NHS 111 service is in the process of being introduced.”

These are the areas where NHS Direct’s 0845 number will continue because the 111 service has not been fully launched:

Updated 22 March