NHS 111

Spoke to 4 individuals and given incoherent advice throughout. One dental nurse advised that we took my severely disabled mother who was in severe pain with a broken tooth and exposed nerves to the Dental Hosptial as a walk in on a day that they were actually closed! Followed swiftly by another call who knew nothing about the previous call back ? (I thought these were all logged on a system!) referred us to an out of hours Emergency dentist that could not then treat her because of her physical disabilities, which we had already repeatedly advised all parties of. Then found also this 111 referred ‘emergency dental service’ was actually a private clinic and she (despite being on benefits entitling her to free care) was obliged to pay their private fees! Absolutely shocking dental service in this area! And very very poor support and service from 111.

My twin brother was advised by 111 to not go to the hospital because there was no swelling on his foot. turns out he had fractured his metatarsal bone in his foot. Time frame between the phone call and going to GP was 2 weeks because his foot was in too much pain.

I phoned NHS 111 due to symptoms of faecal impaction (already diagnosed). The on call Dr called an ambulance to take me to Sandwell Hospital, although I live in South Birmingham. I explained I had Borderline Personality Disorder and said I was feeling stressed due to the impaction; the Dr said that my mental health was not relevant to the referral. He sent the ambulance to a hospital I did not know, rather than the QE (or Heartlands) which I do. I felt extremely confused, resulting in me having a public breakdown in A&E.

My daughter recently had to call 111 due to being in the middle of a sustained asthma attack. The health advisor was brilliant, she put me onto a paramedic who advised me he was sending an ambulance. The hospital, paramedics and all NHS staff were amazing.

Rang 111 as was told to by my GP practice to call them as they had no appointments. Spoke to 111 who assessed me as needing an urgent GP appointment within 2 hours. Then I phoned the GP back who had no appointments... Felt like I was stuck in a loop! Thankfully my GP did then phone me and arranged for me to be seen in the morning, but wish 111 had been more helpful signposting to out of hours care instead.

I had a dental problem on Saturday and as my dentist wasn't open was advised by NHS 111 that I would need to see a dentist within 24 hours. They gave me two emergency dentists details and neither of them were open, and neither do emergency appointments. I phoned NHS 111 back and was told that someone would call me back within 2 hours. 6.5 hours later I had still not heard back, so had to phone them again. Luckily my symptoms had calmed down by the time they rung back. The dental nurse who called was unable to update systems so that wrong information is not given out to others.