Being vile to 111

[111hell]

Can anyone shed light on why people are so awful to 111? It's a triage job to assist you in getting help. That's it, yes the questions may feel stupid but the tool rules out possible outcomes. I have never been spoken to the way I have working for 111. People are just vile. Honestly it's soul destroying

Erm no, nope, that's really not how 111 operates.

I've always found the people on 111 to be friendly and helpful although I think they are working in such difficult circumstances and so stretched at this time of year especially that people get frustrated by the long waits when they're feeling anxious and ill anyway. It's no excuse though.

People sometimes resort to 111 when they can't get a GP or dentist appointment and then get really stressed when they are told to... get a GP or dentist appointment - it's kind of going round in circles.

The frustration of waiting ages for your call to be answered followed by a long wait for someone to call you back is awful. You feel in limbo especially if you're trying to make choices for a child or confused elderly person.

I do always find it odd though when I'm asked if I'm the patient - yes and the next question is whether I'm conscious and breathing!! I think some of the more experienced handler just check yes for those as I'm not always asked.

In my experience the vast majority of people who are really unwell or desparately worried about their loved one are unfailingly polite. It's the ones who've had a hurty knee for the last 10 years and suddenly decide they want it sorted NOW because they' pay their taxes' who are abusive.

20 yrs working in A&E here....I feel your pain

I've worked with the general public all my working life. Various roles, and some people are absolutely vile. They see their stress being an excuse to abuse people. The company I work for just now has a cohort of very wealthy clients and this has been some of the very worst behaviour I've come across.
Stress, anger, whatever is no excuse to choose to abuse someone.

My DH can often get short and shirty with call centre workers. I keep saying to him, those people are human beings and whatever it is that you are frustrated about, it's not their fault.

I agree with pp about stress and frustration and general rudeness. What I’d also say is that in some ways 111 ‘started it’ by making the process robotic. Obviously I know there are reasons for that but if you don’t let the call handlers behave in a natural human way (for example by skipping irrelevant questions) it is not surprising that callers don’t feel their humanity. Callers probably feel that although you are technically being polite, you are not treating them as humans either.

I agree! I’ve always felt they have been kind and caring. Of course you have to answer questions so they can help you!

Even when I ended up crying as I felt so weak and ill, they were so lovely to me. I’m sorry you get abuse, sadly it seems the norm nowadays

I am. Having dealt with them on a regular basis I just don’t have patience to deal with them anymore

I think by the time they contact 111 they’ve probably already failed to get anywhere with their GP or dentist. They are probably stressed, in pain or in crisis.

I agree that it’s very robotic.
I used it recently and I was told to ‘contact my GP as they have a duty of care to help me.’ I called my GP and the receptionist didn’t want to know despise me saying 111 had referred me there to be seen the same day. I was told to go to a&e or call back the next morning to see if any appointments were available.

Often with the NHS you spend more time chasing help than anything else. Add in pain and it’s a nightmare.

Thank you all for your replies. I posted at the end of a very long, busy shift. The people saying about the questions being irrelevant obviously don't understand the triage process - we don't diagnose we rule out.

I have had occassions in my life with health issues, childrens health, unwell parents etc but I have never once spoken to someone the way people speak on the phone to 111. Hats off to f2f nhs staff - you guys are incredible.

It's really unfair. You are doing an important job and don't deserve abuse.
I don't agree that it's because people are ill stressed or tired. Retail workers get a lot of abuse too. Even when I was a nursery nurse (which I thought would be better) parents would hurl verbal abuse at us daily.
So I think it's more that some people are just rude, entitled twats
But try not to let it get to you. A lot of us appreciate the help and support you give.

People are scared, in pain, tired, probably more stressed if it's their child or a relative. people are desperate for someone to help them. However none of those things are reason to be vile. People should try very hard to be kind to other humans. That was a thing in COVID, be kind, but it seems to have worn off.

The general public are entitled arseholes OP. I worked for the Scottish version for years and even the ones who weren’t in need of emergency treatment were vile.

Callers don’t realise that the triage questions are there as a form of safety because we can’t do a visual triage, not for our own personal interest. We want them off the phone getting help as quick as possible too

What sort of stuff do people say to you OP?

I can understand some frustration when the repeated questions seem pointless - e.g. a dd with a 4 day old baby was asked 3 times whether she could be pregnant! - but they are obliged to follow a script so there’s no excuse for getting shirty with them.

Having said that, I was only grateful to 111 the sole time I needed to ring them, because of shallow, painful breathing. An ambulance arrived PDQ.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.