I'm a 111 call handler AMA

[111callhandler]

I see lots of threads where people say how crap 111 is. I thought maybe people wonder what goes on the other end of the phone...

I know it's probably not a commonly held opinion but as the mum of a 2 year old I have found the service to be brilliant. My son recently had an episode on a Saturday (it's always weekends!) where he spiked a very high temp of 41 and went a funny purple colour on his hands and feet. I rang 111 and 25 mins later we were met at the hospital by a registrar. I couldn't get over the efficiency. Turned out to be a nasty ear infection. So yeah that's not a question, but I've always got the impression that they don't take chances with little ones.

Fatberg, only once! I think it was a lady that got bitten by a lion. It would make a change from the dog bites we get lots of calls about!

Decormad, we challenge them more than the callers. We would never diagnose over the phone either so we'd never tell someone they were having a heart attack. If callers do challenge the outcome I almost always get a second opinion from a nurse advisor. The most commonly challenged one is A&E I suppose. Nobody wants to go there and wait for hours which is fair enough. We always tell people we can only advise them, it's up to them if they take that advice.

1sttime, I'm glad it worked well for you. And yes, under 5s have a completely different set of very sensitive algorithms where it would rarely come up with a wait of more than 2 hours. Less than that for under 3s and then less again for under 18 months.

I once made the epically poor decision of telling them I was an off duty hcp, when I called for an appt for my sick baby. Because I was off duty the call taker (with no medical knowledge at all) told me it didn't matter that I'd assessed my child and I couldn't just have an appt- it would be down to the nurse and then the doctor to call me back and decide whether I needed one or not. 🙄🙄 8 hours later, when we had returned from A&E they finally phoned me back.. Still livid to this day. (And yes, of course I had chased it up)

Didn't make that mistake the second time. I told them I was on scene with my a sick child- immediately given the appointment... Does it honestly matter that much as to whether I'm wearing a uniform or not??

That is the official line with us too but I always ask if we can skip the nurse advice bit if it's a nurse or a doctor on the phone as it seems pointless to me. Usually they oblige but sometimes there's other stuff going on behind the scenes that means they can't. One of our areas had no ooh GPs yesterday for example. So before sending people to A&E or miles out of area they were nurse assessing as much as possible.

In your example they weren't making it more difficult because you were a hcp so I don't suppose it matters if you told them or not.

Last week I called 111 because a district nurse refused to deal with my (very sick and disabled - totally helpless) OH as he was in excruciating agony with a major bowel blockage, so much so that when I rang 111 for advice they called an ambulance. Out came 3 para-medics and decided he did not need hospital, but simply a doctor to do a manual evacuation. They finished up ringing the district nurse (same reply) and 111 themselves! We got a doctor in the end, but so many people had wasted so much time over something that was so very simple.

By the way, my OH is a retired GP.

He kept trying to tell them what was needed and getting nowhere.