North East Ambulance Service to spend £1.7m on 70 new call handlers to boost NHS111 service

The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) is planning to spend £1.7m on boosting its NHS111 handler numbers to meet an "extraordinary increased in demand".

The NEAS recruitment campaign comes after the service took almost 440,000 calls to 999 - and 864,000 calls to NHS111 - during the last financial year.

This latest investment will be spent on 70 health advisor roles to work in the service's emergency operations centres (EOC) between Newburn and Hebburn - a move which is hoped will reduce answer delays and abandoned unanswered calls.

Gerardine Hope, service manager for call handling, said: “Through this recruitment, we’ll be able to help more people via our award-winning 111 service and provide additional support to our existing team who have worked so tirelessly to manage an extraordinary increase in demand over the past 18 months, which is forecast to increase further.

“Given challenges elsewhere – particularly within primary care – we are looking to boost the number of caring, compassionate health advisors within the Emergency Operations Centre so that we can answer the calls of those contacting us via 111 more quickly and therefore help avoid those patients either calling 999 or going directly to A&E."

According to NEAS, last year 94,926 patients were treated and discharged over the telephone with a further 108,993 from 111 directed to urgent or primary care.

Health advisors are the first person someone speaks to if they are dialling 111 and 999 with an urgent or emergency health concern.

All 111 health advisors undergo five weeks full time initial training. They then spend time listening to calls before taking live calls alongside a coach.

The service also offers a part-time seven-week training course for people who are unable to commit to a full-time course.

New health advisor calls are regularly audited for safety and, after roughly 12 months, it is expected that they will also undergo 999 training to enable them to take both 111 and 999 calls.

Head of commercial development, Jonathan Knox, said: “This is vital in terms of providing the level of care we aspire to for our patients. Call answer delays for patients will be substantially reduced and calls being abandoned will also reduce.

“Overall, the additional capacity will mean better patient care, and less pressure and stress on our whole call answering workforce.”