‘Frustrating’ NHS 111 service fails to acknowledge pharmacy

the problem with 111 is that it relies on protocols which are populated with profiles of providers. i.e. it contains a list of conditions each healthcare professional can treat or offer advice. I would be confident that the “exclusion” of pharmacy is primarily as a consequence of the person filling in the profile not being aware of the services pharmacy can provide. To ensure this is not repeated then the LPCs should contact the PCT/CCG manager responsible for this task at once as these profiles are currently being constructed across the country.

Where are the figures, so we can analyse the detail?

Hi Raymond - the full data set is on the Department of Health website here:

http://transparency.dh.gov.uk/2012/08/03/nhs-111-statistics-june-2012/

The Excel spreadsheet goes into quite a bit of detail about how referrals are broken down across different areas etc. Thanks and hope that helps.

Perhaps the ideal answer is to get the BMA to push Pharmacy as a pathway from the 111 service - the DoH listen to them more than us, they get fewer referrals and we get more work so we should all be happy.

""Croydon pharmacies could stand to treat as many as 40 per cent of the callers to the NHS 111 service, LPC secretary Andrew McCoig has told C+D.""

Perhaps you can get an opinion from the LPC secretary to see if Croydon has seen 40% of callers to 111 directed to pharmacies??

The article states no-one in the Croydon area was directed to pharmacies or dentists. Thus Mr McCoig's frustration.

The problem seems to me when the 111 respondent goes beyond their guidelines.
A recent example was a patient who called the helpline early Saturday morning with acute diarrhea. He was not told to call in to the pharmacy for advice, but a told to go to the pharmacy for a specific product, use of which would have contradicted current guidelines.