111!!

[Tonight1]

I had some weird virus/bug which has cleared up now except for one symptom so called 111 at 3.30pm for advice.

They phoned back at 9am today!! That really is quite a long time!

In my experience they are usually miles quicker. I was still fast asleep and woke up slightly but not enough to answer the phone so GP surgery when they reopen it is.

Have you had wait times this long in your area?

Probably a big queue caused by all the timewasters who don't answer their phones after requesting a call back.

Cannot overstate the queues of people waiting for call backs, it can be into the high hundreds/thousands.

111 are like every other health related service in the U.K., chronically understaffed, huge staff turn over due to abusive, very challenging working conditions and burnout.

Hope you recover soon OP, sounds like a miserable Christmas for you with that bug.

Hey, that wasn't my fault, I waited up until 5am then fell fast asleep.

I'm currently waiting 18hours for a rash on my toddlers face. Pharmacist said he needed to see a dr.. they said a clinician will ring me back it will take up to 18 hours which will make it 3am for them to probably then make me wait for a dr callback, just want an out of hours appointment 🤦🏼‍♀️

@Needahandholdplease2023 😯

Hope you get seen to soon - perhaps they're snowed under and/or have staff shortages

I called 111 at 9am and was assessed as needing a 2-hour callback. They finally did at 11pm that night - I was already in hospital with sepsis 😮

Have you not seen or heard anything about the nhs in the last 20 years? It's on its knees.

Actually I've always had a good experience with 111 prior to this, fast callbacks. It isn't urgent, it just means I'll have to put up with feeling weak for a few more days.

@NorthCliffs that sounds horrible

Well, why did you phone 111 if even you knew it wasn’t urgent?

@WashItTomorrow that is goady - it could get serious if not treated at some point.

Please sneer elsewhere.

It’s not goady at all! Or sneery. I would never dream of calling 111 for something like that. I can’t imagine many people would.

@WashItTomorrow anyway it's 999 if it's 'urgent', you should know that

111 is for urgent health problems, 999 is for life threatening problems. Didn't you know that?

@WashItTomorrow you don't know what it was about...so you can't comment.

I have every right to call 111 if I need medication and GP surgery is shut.

So much for 'nice' people 🤷‍♀️

This thread was about 111 wait times ONLY.

@Tonight1 Hope youre feeling better 🤗
What a lovely bunch of helpful mumsnetters you had 😠

I've always had a good response from 111, a couple of hours at most. But I only call when something is urgent - a child with a worryingly high temperature that won't respond to nurofen & calpol for example.

I wouldn't call them about a virus that was already clearing up.

I rang a couple of weeks ago about my 1yr old having a bad fall. He'd been out at nursery for 10hrs so was tired and hangry.

The advice was not to feed him, give him anything to drink or let him sleep in case the callback advised a hospital visit/treatment. They called back at 5:40am, over 12hrs after I called them. Needless to say we were all asleep and missed the call so they closed the case.

The previous time I called, he was a small baby and we were told it was an urgent 2hr callback. We waited up all night and they never called.

So the first time you called were you triahed? And told you'd get a call back? If so I'd assume they had more pressing calls.

DH called 111 at 1am Boxing Day morning, had a phone all an hour later from doctor. He was told if he gets worse, go to A&E, and given an appointment to come in and see at 8.30 in morning.

I have never had a complaint about the service.

Our local doctors surgery also guarantees an appointment that day if you ring before 11am.

Does it depend on how busy each area is? I rang 111 yesterday at 9am and they put me on hold but then gave me an appointment at an OOH centre for 3pm. The sign in the OOH place though said general waiting times were 7 hours long.

111 is an out if hours service not urgent care 😒

But they can arrange it.

On a Sunday (NYE) when the majority of primary care settings are closed and they're on bank holiday weekend staffing levels essentially? Yes it'll take ages. Generally if it's super urgent you'll get a call back quickly, if its that you do need to speak to a clinician but it's not time critical you'll just keep getting bumped down the list- 24 hours plus isn't unheard of here. The issue with 111 is that there isn't enough supporting infrastructure ie out of hours apps to make it overly worthwhile.