NHS HELP LINE 111 ANOTHER WASTE OF MONEY -- Updated 30 July,2014

UPDATED:  30 July, 2014   --  Now another of David Cameron's flagships had to close down and it costs again the Taxpayers' money. All in all, the setting up, closing down and various golden handshakes and redundancy monies cost £90million is money taken from the NHS.  

How that Prime Minister times and times again waste taxpayers' money without any concern about it all? There are too many failed reforms and flagships about and it makes you wonder whether there is a method in the madness? Nobody in its right mind can be that hopeless.

David Cameron’ flagship and set up only in April 2013 as part of the reform of the NHS is on the verge of collapse. It is the second time the Prime Minister and his government fell flat on their faces within two or three weeks.  The other failure is the Border Agency. Although set up in the 2006 but were continuously piling up files of asylum seeker without dealing with it and now ended up with 500,000 cases. The previous head of the Border Agency Mr Buckley had support from the prime minister for a long time but eventually had to resign. He too received a golden handshake in spite of his great failure. Border Agency closed down and brought back under the Home office control.  However, the loss of million of pounds of taxpayers’ money is despicable and irresponsible.

The NHS 111 phone number was set up in April 2013 and it is free to supply help 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. It was thought to replace the previous NHS direct line which could not book out-of-hours GP appointments or call ambulances. Its main function was to give medical help to patients who do not need the 999 emergency services.  The old number covered the whole country while the 111 is available only 46 local services in different areas and run by ambulance services, private companies and the previous NHS Direct service.

NHS Direct had two call handlers to every qualified nurse; 111 have up to 15 call centre workers to one nurse.  This is always the point where every privatised service fails.  They cut down on staff to save money and increase the profit but it doesn’t work and the government is most surprised. In the long run it always cost the taxpayers more money than the financial wizards make out to be.

The news today is that the disastrous NHS help line was in danger of collapsing last night especially since its biggest provider NHS Direct pulled out.  NHS Direct decided to quit its nine contracts because they could not support it financially.  Health chiefs became concerned and looking for a new provider to take over the service.  Officially a guarantee was given to patients to receive prompt and safe service. However, the unions labelled the 111 a chaos.

Dr Gerada, chairwomen of the Royal College of GP, warned: “It’s dismantling as we speak.”  Doctors also accused the Government dismissing the warnings that the help line which is for urgent but non-emergency queries is unsafe. The old help line had 80 per cent of advisers of trained nurses or doctors. The new one has only 20 per cent qualified medical staff.

Furthermore, the old system was divided into 46 separate contracts which resulted into private firms bidding against each other. The result was to run the service at the lowest cost to quote the lowest bidding.  This is a recipe for disaster.

The end result was that NHS Direct with a cost of £20 per call on the 0845 service had to compete against £8 per call. Naturally the quality drops if the cost is cut to such an extent.  The 111 line also caused a crisis in emergency care when untrained staff advised to the help seeking patients and advise them mostly to go to the A&E

NHS chiefs held a crisis meeting to find a new provider to cover NHS Direct after they pulled out. The five year contracts will have to be transfer safely not to endanger patients who seek help but will the government care enough to provide it?  The provider “Harmoni” showed staff shortages, long waits for callers and ambulances called out unnecessarily.

An investigation was made and a call centre manager admitted that the service is not safe on the weekend because of the lack of staff.  The answer to that would be that on the weekend when most accidents happened and with unavailability of doctors therefore the help line is most needed and should be staffed more.

Of course, David Cameron’s spokesman would white wash it and stated that the Government was not shying away from problems with 111 and insisted it was “confident it will continue to push up standards for patients.”   It sound like they trying to smooth over to make sure the contracts will run on for five years whether the service is good or not. We. the public had it too many times this situation and it cost a lot of taxpayers' money and could again wasted.

The Daily Mirror voices nothing but contempt for the changes of the NHS Direct service which gave one nurse to two callers. This is a vital point which is necessary dealing with emergency calls about health problem. Now it is cut down to one nurse to 15 callers.  Everybody with some sense can see the impossibility to cope and bound to turn into a sloppy useless service. 

The National Health Service is certainly not safe in the Tory’s hands. Another promise David Cameron did not keep.

David Cameron said on St George’s Day that he is proud to be English but all his deeds prove the opposite.  He certainly ruined the NHS to a great extent. A service he should have been proud of and the public won’t forgive him.