Care Opinion

Contacting NHS111 from a landline

Posted By irregularitybb83

"Contacting NHS111 from a landline"

About: NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service)

(as a relative),

I recently had to call NHS 24 for my mum when she was unwell. I reached for the first phone I could find and it just happened to be the landline. After dialling 111 I was told to press 9 to continue. I pressed 9 only to hear ‘we have not been able to detect the correct response from you’ and I had to hang up and try again. I did this and the same thing happened again.

Luckily I could call from my mobile, which I did, and from then on had no problems. I did not have to wait very long and the people I spoke to were very kind and helpful and I would like to thank them for this. However, I wonder what I would have done if I had not had a mobile and I really feel for people who would just not be able to get through to help in their time of need.

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Responses

Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 about a year and a half ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24

Submitted on 11/09/2023 at 16:14
Published on Care Opinion at 16:14

picture of Shona Lawrence

Dear irregularitybb83

I'm so sorry to learn your mum was unwell and I hope she is doing much better. Thanks for sharing your experience on Care Opinion.

I see you attempted to call NHS 24 unsuccessfully from your landline and then subsequently made contact via your mobile phone. I read your story with concern and I am very sorry for your experience at what was, no doubt, a worrying time. I would like to explore this further with you if you would be kind enough to make direct contact.

I shared your story with our Telephony Team to see if they could shed any light on why this happened. They have explained that, for some callers who use the older style rotary phones, they sometimes have to press 9 twice, or say 'yes' to move forward within our phone menu. We are obviously unclear what type of phone you were using, therefore it would be good to learn more about this. As more than 40% of our calls come from people with landlines, we are especially keen to look at this further. This is not something we have had feedback on before that I can recall, so it would be good to know more.

Apologies again for you experience which no doubt was frustrating.

I'm pleased, when you got through, you found our staff kind and helpful.

You can contact me on 07814 299944 or email Patient.Experience@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk

Thanks again and best wishes to both you and your mum.

Regards

Shona

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