Urgent medical and health advice is now available across Wales 24 hours a day seven days a week following the national rollout of the 111 helpline. The service, which is run by the Welsh Ambulance Service and can be accessed online at 111.wales.nhs.uk or by calling 111, gives people up-to-date guidance on which NHS service is right for them.
The NHS 111 Wales website includes more than 65 symptom checkers and information about local services and is intended to be everyone's first port of call before making a phone call. But if a health concern is urgent call handlers on the 111 helpline can also help direct people to the most suitable care to meet their needs.
The service has now been rolled out to all seven health board areas in Wales, including Cardiff and Vale University Health Board which came online last month. Here's everything you need to know about the service and when it should be used.
When should I use NHS 111?
If someone is unwell or needs advice about a health condition then the NHS 111 website offers free healthcare advice as well as information on local services. But if it's more urgent then the 111 number is available.
The whole point of introducing it Wales-wide is to try and reduce the volumes of people visiting hospitals and spending long periods of time waiting to see health professionals in areas like A&E. According to Welsh Government figures 24,521 (33.4%) of patients spent four hours or more in an emergency department before being admitted, transferred, or discharged in February while more than 9,000 spent in excess of 12 hours there.
Many conditions don't have to be seen in hospital and can be accessed in community settings like pharmacies which are offering more services than ever before. The 111 service will try to direct people to the right place first time to avoid lengthy delays in being seen. Obviously people in a life-threatening situation should still call 999.
Who will be answering the calls?
People calling 111 will firstly speak to a specially-trained call handler who will ask a series of questions. This will allow the service's healthcare professionals – nurses and, during evenings, weekends, and bank holidays, GPs and pharmacists – to prioritise calls so the most seriously ill are treated first.
Depending on the urgency of their condition some people will get a call back from a nurse, doctor, or pharmacist if they call out-of-hours. If they need to see a GP out of hours 111 staff can arrange this.
Until now people have had to use different numbers to contact different services but 111 brings them together under one number. Some of the things that 111 is not able to provide are arranging a Covid-19 test or vaccination or self-isolation advice. You must call 119 for this. The service is also not able to advise on registration for GP or dental practices or prescriptions or appointments for a GP during the working week.
The call will be answered more quickly if it's at quieter times of the day. These are currently:
- Monday to Friday before 5pm and after 9pm
- Saturday and Sunday before 9am and after 3pm
What does the NHS 111 website offer?
While the 111 number has only just been rolled out nationally its website has been around for a while now. It offers information about Covid-19, its symptoms, and where to get tests. It also gives advice on Covid in children and babies.
It also has an A to Z list of common health conditions and an overview of typical symptoms and who can get them as well as how they're diagnosed and treated. There's also a comprehensive list of NHS services near to you including GPs, sexual health clinics, and even locations of defibrillators. Its Live Well section also gives tips on pregnancy, mental health and wellbeing, sleep, exercise, and how to quit smoking.
What do the experts say?
Health minister Eluned Morgan said: "Medical advice and information about accessing the right service at the right time is available for free across Wales. This fantastic service, supported by £15m of Welsh Government funding, will help people receive the most appropriate care for their health needs and will also help to ease pressure on our vital 999 service. Together with the NHS 111 Wales website this easy-to-remember free phone service will make a real difference to our healthcare service in Wales."
Richard Bowen, national programme director for 111, said: "Often within the NHS access to urgent care services is really quite confusing. You don’t know what services are open when and, depending on your condition, you don’t know which healthcare professional would be the best person for you.
"The NHS 111 Wales website and free-to-call 111 number simplifies all of that so from now on you only have to dial 111 and you will be signposted to one of a range of different options. We're thrilled that this service is now available to everyone in Wales and I’d like to personally thank everyone involved. This is a significant milestone for NHS Wales and we intend to continue improving the service going forward."
Stephen Clinton, assistant director of operations for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, said: "There's been a lot of great work over the past six years growing NHS 111 Wales and we’re very proud of what has been achieved. Our teams across Wales now help close to a million people each year with their urgent care needs 24 hours a day seven days a week."
