More than nine out of ten callers are “fairly or very satisfied” with the new urgent care service NHS 111, a report suggests.
NHS 111, which is now up and running in 13 locations across England, has now dealt with over 1 million calls since its introduction in August 2010.
The University of Sheffield’s evaluation of the first four NHS 11 pilot sites to go live found that overall the new service achieved its goal of getting patients to the “right place, first time”.
Furthermore, the evaluation showed the four sites exceeded the national standards for the number of calls answered within 30 seconds.
The figures also showed more than nine in ten people (93%) found NHS 111 advice “helpful” and 86% of callers followed the advice given and were “definitely clear” about when to use the service.
“This report shows that NHS 111 is benefiting patients by improving access to urgent care services and ensuring they get to the right service, first time, to meet their medical needs,” said Health Minister Lord Howe.
“Of course, it is early days for NHS 111 and this report is based on the first four pilot sites. There are now thirteen sites up and running and we expect to see NHS 111 have a greater impact as more areas go live.”
Latest figures for June 2012 also show that across the ten pilot sites that are now established, 90% of callers were either “very or fairly satisfied” with their NHS 111 experience and 98% of calls were answered within 60 seconds.
It is expected the majority of NHS 111 services will be up and running by March 2013.
