Fears patients may have suffered harm or died due to NHS helpline failings: NHS investigates claims that 'serious untoward incidents' have resulted from failings with NHS Direct replacement service
The NHS is investigating claims that some patients have suffered harm, and even died, as a result of problems with its new telephone advice service, 111.
Inquiries are ongoing into a number of what the NHS calls "serious untoward incidents" (SUIs), which have to be recorded when a patient has suffered avoidable harm.
There is confusion about how many such incidents have occurred involving failings with 111, the replacement for NHS Direct in England, which has attracted a string of complaints from doctors and patients since it launched last month. The medical website Pulse claims that at least 22 SUIs, including three deaths, have been reported.
But the NHS organisation that provides the 111 service in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire insisted that the two deaths in its area Pulse referred to had not involved any weaknesses in the 111 service and were no longer considered to have been SUIs.
In one case, a doctor turned up but had been unable to gain access to the home of a patient with mental health problems who soon after took a fatal overdose, and in the other, ambulance staff called to help an 83-year-old with serious abdominal pains but were unable to save the patient's life, NHS sources said.
The BBC reported that seven SUIs have been linked to 111's performance, including one death in the West Midlands. In that case, 111's involvement led to a patient being referred to an out-of-hours GP service, and later dying.
NHS England, which has run the health service since 1 April as a result of the coalition's NHS shakeup, on Friday admitted that "a couple" of the 46 providers of 111 services – some private, some public – had displayed "seriously poor performance".
Dame Barbara Hakin, the organisation's acting deputy chief executive, said failing providers could have their contracts with the NHS revoked. Some have already been fined for offering a poor service. NHS England has launched an urgent external review of 111.
Since its launch patients in some areas have faced long waits for their calls to be answered and further delays before a call handler rings back to advise them. Others have been given wrong advice, with staff shortages and poorly-trained staff blamed. Hospitals say problems with 111 partly explain a surge in demand for A&E services.
An NHS report into the service this week concluded that it was in a "fragile" state in some places, although on Friday NHS England sought to reassure patients that "a good 111 service is now operating in most of the country". Guardian
The NHS is investigating claims that some patients have suffered harm, and even died, as a result of problems with its new telephone advice service, 111.
Inquiries are ongoing into a number of what the NHS calls "serious untoward incidents" (SUIs), which have to be recorded when a patient has suffered avoidable harm.
There is confusion about how many such incidents have occurred involving failings with 111, the replacement for NHS Direct in England, which has attracted a string of complaints from doctors and patients since it launched last month. The medical website Pulse claims that at least 22 SUIs, including three deaths, have been reported.
But the NHS organisation that provides the 111 service in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire insisted that the two deaths in its area Pulse referred to had not involved any weaknesses in the 111 service and were no longer considered to have been SUIs.
In one case, a doctor turned up but had been unable to gain access to the home of a patient with mental health problems who soon after took a fatal overdose, and in the other, ambulance staff called to help an 83-year-old with serious abdominal pains but were unable to save the patient's life, NHS sources said.
The BBC reported that seven SUIs have been linked to 111's performance, including one death in the West Midlands. In that case, 111's involvement led to a patient being referred to an out-of-hours GP service, and later dying.
NHS England, which has run the health service since 1 April as a result of the coalition's NHS shakeup, on Friday admitted that "a couple" of the 46 providers of 111 services – some private, some public – had displayed "seriously poor performance".
Dame Barbara Hakin, the organisation's acting deputy chief executive, said failing providers could have their contracts with the NHS revoked. Some have already been fined for offering a poor service. NHS England has launched an urgent external review of 111.
Since its launch patients in some areas have faced long waits for their calls to be answered and further delays before a call handler rings back to advise them. Others have been given wrong advice, with staff shortages and poorly-trained staff blamed. Hospitals say problems with 111 partly explain a surge in demand for A&E services.
An NHS report into the service this week concluded that it was in a "fragile" state in some places, although on Friday NHS England sought to reassure patients that "a good 111 service is now operating in most of the country". Guardian
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