NHS 111 led to more ambulance dispatches, finds study

The NHS 111 urgent care telephone service increased the use of ambulances in England during its first year of operation—contrary to what it was designed to do—shows an evaluation of pilot sites published in BMJ Open.1

The Department of Health commissioned the study to evaluate NHS 111, the new 24 hour telephone service to manage all requests for urgent help, including those for GP out of hours services and urgent problems that may need an ambulance. The service is staffed by non-clinicians who use an algorithm based assessment system, NHS Pathways, to triage calls to other services or care …