Quarter of a million responses in four months.
The NHS 111 West Midlands service reached a significant milestone in the early hours of Friday morning when the 250,000th call was answered since West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) stepped in as providers.
WMAS took over the running of the service on 11th November 2013, after previous providers NHS Direct decided to step out of their contract. During the last three months WMAS has worked hard to make numerous improvements to the service with the training of staff being one of the key areas of focus.
The impressive level of performance being produced is highlighted by the fact that of the 250,000 calls answered, approximately 97 per cent have been answered within 60 seconds against a national target of 95 per cent. On an increasing number of occasions the staff answer 100 per cent of calls within 60 seconds. NHS 111 Training Lead Teresa Beresford said: “Reaching 250,000 calls is an important landmark for us and we now look forward to successfully reaching further milestones as the service continues to progress.
“Performance remains strong since WMAS stepped in to run the 111 service and that is all down to the determination of our staff to perform to the best of their ability.”
