Calling 111 unnecessarily - please try not to

[BertiesLanding]

I'm reading many threads about people who have symptoms, or who are scared, and who want to call 111 "just in case".

I know this is going to run counter to everything you want to do, but, please, DO NOT CALL until you have thought this through rationally.

The instructions are clear, and specific: only call if you cannot manage the symptoms on your own (and one of the symptoms is not anxiety). In other words, call if you realise that you are becoming too ill to be at home.

If you are too ill to be at home, then 111 is going to be very important for you. To have it inundated with calls because people are having symptoms, but they can cope, or they are calling 'just to be on the safe side' while still being able to cope, is what is going to overrun the system and put those who really need care into critical danger.

That is all.

Well said and if you are worried look at nhs website first please. These are unprecedented times and we really need to think about use of resources.

Absolutely. And I think this should go for all NHS services as far as is possible. 111 is also usually first port of call for those who aren't sure an ambulance is necessary in other circs - such as when my son had an allergic reaction and I had no transport at all. Unnecessary calls to 111 could prevent an ambulance being dispatched to a life or death situation, Covid or otherwise.

I think it's really hard for our modern society to understand working 'for the greater good' in an age where individualism has meant an expectation that we each deserve to have our needs met (even when systems don't live up to this expectation and fail us).

In this, while our own units (families, close friends, communities) are important to us and we can do everything we can to protect them, on a macro level, it is the systems that are important - particularly the NHS. It is what our sickest are going to turn to, and it needs to have as few unnecessary demands on it as possible because, as it is, it is very probably going to be overwhelmed. It is as simple as that.

Older people ie over 60 or so and particular the WW2 generation remember quarantining for scarlet fever and measles. My contacts with them have all been about minimising risk .