Patients phoning 111 forced to wait up to 14 hours to speak to a doctor

14 January 2023 , 21:29

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Patients have reported long wait times on NHS 111 to speak to a doctor (file image) (Image: Getty Images)

Patients phoning the NHS’ 111 service are being forced to wait for up to 14 hours to speak to a doctor.

The outrageous wait times are being compounded by delays of up to get through for an initial consultation.

And callers say the problem has been ongoing since last month.

Complaining online, Lyndsay MacKay said: “111 take about 14 hours to respond and if you get worsening symptoms you call them back and on average it’s about a 90 minute wait on the phone!

She added: “It’s been like this for weeks.”

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Mandy Anderson told how she faced a nine-hour wait for a callback on December 7.

Callers say the problem has been ongoing since last month (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

She said: “Most suicidal people don’t really want to chat on the phone! Your ignorance is sad.

Another user, who called the service on December 31, added: “What kind of a country are we living in.

“One hour 35 minutes to get through to 111.

“Referred for a phone call from a Doctor. Got a comfort call 2 hrs later from a random person to say there’s an up to 8 hrs wait for a call from a Doctor. It’s been 7.5 hours and still waiting.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “£50 million of NHS funding has been provided to increase NHS 111 call taking capacity this year. We continue to advise people to use NHS 111 services in non-urgent cases and only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency.

‘’The latest published NHS data shows that from April 2022 to September 2022, of patients who responded to NHS 111 patient experience surveys, 76.3% were either very or fairly satisfied with the way the NHS 111 service handled the whole process."

Patrick Hill