NHS 111 service 'chaotic and fragmented'

NHS bosses in England will today discuss what they should do about the new non-emergency 111 phone service.

It was only introduced in England a few weeks ago but reports have emerged of calls going unanswered and poor advice being given leading to hospitals being inundated with patients.

Dr John Hughes, a GP in the Manchester area, told the Today programme's Sarah Montague that calls that went through to the 111 service were not going through to the GPs staffing the 111 phone lines.

He said that the 111 service had been suspended "less than 10 hours after it was actually launched" in the majority of the Greater Manchester area.

The Royal College of Nursing's director of nursing Janet Davies explained that "we really need to look very carefully at what we need in the future."

"NHS England need to make a long term plans for this, just sort of filling in as and when is not very good for the patients... and not very good for staff who don't know where they are going to be next week," she said.

"This is a fragmented service with local contracts... and it's very very chaotic," she added.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday 3 May 2013.