Being vile to 111

Wonder if there was a pilot of this what would happen? It won't though as you'll get all the 'ah bless, they just can't help being rude/obnoxious/agressive/violent, poor lamb , #bekind..."

If people are vile to 111 or in A and E they shouldn’t get seen, fuck em, one way to bring the queues down.

People in public facing roles largely do a great job and no one deserves abuse whilst trying to do their job.

I volunteer with the general public weekly and as a nation, attitudes of entitlement flourish. There are some great examples of human selflessness too.

I feel this thread is connected to another running at the moment where poster is embarrassed at her dd being rude and storming out of a gp appt, the mood on that appears to be 'well done her, they deserve it, that'll tell 'em'....
So backs up what a lot of pp are saying about the attitude it's acceptable and should be expected being rude to people dealing with the public!

There is no need to be rude and i would assume if your phoning 111,its not an immediate life threatening situation
I do remember however when my son collapsed at home i called 999,I was very frightened and probably did raise my voice ,as I thought he was dying ,and it did turn out to be a life threatening situation ,thankfully he recovered.

I wasn't driving my husband was. The reason I had to call there and then was because I knew it would be hours until someone would get back to me. Both me and my husband work full time (I'm a HCP) so every minute counts when you're potentially having to go out into he middle of the night once someone eventually rings you back. Calling 10 mins early might be the difference between a call at midnight or 2am.

Also, although I was frustrated I remained polite.
Il also remember to memorise every postcode I ever visit in the future just incase I need to call. Thanks.

Absolutely untrue.
what an absolutely ridiculous statement.

Id keep this kind of rubbish to yourself.

Have you listened in to every 111 call ever to make that call?

You are lying, as that is exactly how my call went

It’s nothing to do with “common sense” we are REQUIRED to know your exact location at the time of the call. Why do you need to call while you are in a car anyway? Can’t it wait the few minutes? We are also told to not continue calls with anyone driving until they have pulled over safely. 111 call handlers work for the ambulance service and it’s drilled into you during training to get exact locations as any call could result in a 999 outcome.

1. some people are entitled arsholes.

2. stress/fear reaction. Not uncommon in people who are ill.

3. is likely compounded by the fact that the non clinical call handler, algorithm triage system isn’t great from a patient experience point of view. It’s unlikely to calm anyone in a fight/flight mentality down and possibly exacerbates things when people who are in that state feel like they aren’t being listened too. That’s not the fault of the call handlers it’s the fault of the system.

It's the bot like questions with no compassion that's often frustrated me.
One example I picked my son up from the grandparents (less than 10mins from my house) he wasn't well, it was out of hours so called 111 whilst my husband was driving us home.

111: Can you tell me your current location/postcode
Me: We are currently on our way home which is XXX we will be there in 2 mins
111: Are you in the car now?
Me: Yes
111: I need the postcode of where you are now, not where you will be
Me: I don't know the exact postcode of the random road I'm on round the corner from my house, but I will be home in literally 2 minutes
111: I'm sorry but without your postcode I can't help you find a service to offer assistance
Me: Put my home address as we are just round the corner now
111: Sorry I can't do that if your not at that location
Me: Ok well we are here now XXXX
111: You just said you were in the car, can you confirm you're at Xxx location.

This is why we get frustrated. Not saying it's you OP but some common sense is lacking at times.

Because they're arseholes

Honest answer? Because, in my experience, they're useless! One example being that crisis calls are dealt with any time up to... 72 hours.

Because, of course, nothing could possibly go wrong in that time 😏

I've attempted to use 111 on three occasions and its been utterly inhumane and useless each time.

If you don't fit neatly into a box after the scrip has been recited the handler will effectively pass you off to wherever they can get rid of you too with no concern for your health.

Utterly, utterly frustrating.

It's not right to treat people this way.

I rang 111 yesterday for the first time ever.
My mum has just had an operation and is now home.
We had some concerns as she is 81 and wasn’t coping well.
The people we spoke to were absolutely brilliant, kind and caring.
Thank you for all you do ❤️

I have used the 111 service several times and have always received a fantastic service. Thank you OP for being part of it. I have a chronic condition which always seems to flare up on weekends and they always find me an out of hours doctor.
I work for an arms length government body that offers free appointments to give advice on certain matters. You would not believe the complaints. "I had to wait 20 minutes to get through" "I need an appointment next Thursday at 2pm what do you mean that time is not available?" Yes the general public can be vile.

You do realise that the people you speak to when you call 111 have absolutely no say in how these systems are designed?

Give your head a shake for fuck sake, its common decency to remember your speaking to a human being at the other end of the phone who’s probably went from a really upsetting call straight to someone moaning about toothache without so much as a 5 minute break.

Wow so aggressive. I imagine you are exactly the type of caller the OP is talking about.

Well no shit, the public also don't understand the 'triage system' which is why they're getting shirty with you. It's not right but you have to accept that if you design an inhuman system that treats people like boxes in a flowchart, they're going to feel bad.

It's so much easier to be a knob on the phone. I worked in call centre (the AA) and the way people spoke to me was awful at times. We could give a warning we were hanging up if we were spoken like that again but not sure you can do that in your setting

Face it the great British public are not so great they ring any call center tjey are rude vile abusive and hilarious at the same time find a way to switch off worked in call centre environment for years honestly have little faith in people

I’ve not had a great experience with 111 in a “computer said no” situation. Even the call handler was laughing (with me!) that it wouldn’t allow him to refer to hospital and just said pharmacy.
if it had been my child, a different call handler or me on a different day I may have been quite different in my response. Being that rigid just causes issues.

but some people are just cunts

I’m sorry to say I’ve had a very bad experience with 111 when calls on the previous days weren’t linked to the current ones so no-one had any idea how ill I was and that I’d been sent to A&E 3 times, treated and sent home. I was eventually admitted to hospital very ill. 111 was appalling. I didn’t shout at anyone though as was too ill.

There no reason to be vile to you because it’s not your fault.

The system is appalling and people are sick, frightened, frustrated, desperate and in pain. People can’t get to see their GP, they can get seen at A&E (eventually) but that usually deals with the immediate symptoms and not the underlying issues - they end up on a huge waiting list and they’re back at A&E within a few weeks or months. The ambulance service is also pretty close to not functioning.

111 exists to triage but that means it stands between people and getting treatment. I found it irritating but went along with it. I had appalling advice from a nurse through 111 that left me in agony over the weekend. My GP, when I eventually saw them, couldn’t believe they’d made me wait 48 hours and without any pain relief. The GP told me to go straight to A&E next time.