Nearly 3.7 million calls to non-emergency NHS 111 were dropped due to long waits to talk to a person last year, according to a new analysis.
The study found that nearly one in five callers — or 18 percent — gave up without talking to someone, with the average time it took to answer a call increased to 25 minutes in December.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said it was “completely unacceptable” that people in need of medical care could not reach a hotline.
He will call for emergency hiring of NHS 111 call attendants during a visit on Tuesday to southeast Surrey, the region with the worst NHS 111 delays in the country – one in two callers gave up in December.
It comes as young doctors across England went on strike for four days on Tuesday over a deepening wage dispute that threatens to severely undermine the work of the NHS.
Sir Ed said: “It is totally unacceptable that so many people who need urgent medical advice cannot get through to NHS 111. Staff are exhausted, patients are suffering, but Conservative ministers are still burying their heads in the sand.
“The government urgently needs to hire and train more staff to take emergency calls or millions of people will suffer for too long.
“Local health services across the country are on the brink of collapse after years of neglect and underfunding by this conservative government. Our healthcare system is heavily burdened by waiting times for ambulances and lack of medical appointments.
“The Conservative government’s health record has been in disarray, and today’s numbers are further evidence that we cannot trust them to run the NHS.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said: “This analysis is based on statistics from last year – we have since released our contingency plan to help the NHS care for patients, including increasing the number of NHS 111 call handlers to 4,800.
“Our plan will deliver one of the fastest and longest reductions in emergency waiting times in NHS history, with £14.1 billion available over the next two years on top of record health and welfare funding.”
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.