111 Reviews 3.233

Dental abscess. Rang the emergency dentist line who told me to ring 111. Completed the 111 online form 855pm. My 20 min call back never happened. Rang them went through questions. They said I was on a clinician’s list for a call back. Got a call back at midnight not from a clinician - went through the same questions to be told I would need to ring the dental help line (closed) and couldn’t give me antibiotics

Got the clinician call back at 3am. Who again repeated the same questions - repeated several times he couldn’t do anything. And then proceeded to lecture me on the dangers of painkillers! And wouldn’t give antibiotics telling me to ring the dental helpline. Guess what that told me - to ring 111

Had a problem. 111 listened and acted. Sent a Doctor to my home. Wonderful man. Listened. Did his Doctor things. Diagnosed and prescribed. The Doctor was attentive and spoke with me not at me. Thank you 111 and Bucks 24/7

If you ever hear how "busy and under pressure" health services are that's because there are uninformed people working there. I spoke with 3 different people about the same thing. I was sent to pharmacy for medication which wasn't ready and it wasn't even available in this pharmacy. I was later told my medication has to be prescribed but the person who called me couldn't prescribe it... all I needed was a small supply of my regular medication and I couldn't get it. If your medication was prescribed by specialist 111 can't help you. You're on your own.

A complete and utter waste of time and taxpayer money!! If I had just ONE thing positive to say about this shambles, I’d say it in the appropriate area, but the staff I encountered were talking to me as if I was - and this is in no way meant to be derogatory - 100% senile!! Clearly, there’s training problems (not the fault of the call handlers) here which need to be urgently addressed. The repetition of questions for details already given was bad enough, but the standard of English left much to be desired - how does someone in their job confuse the names Joan and Joanne, unless they have serious literacy problems? Whoever is responsible for the recruitment and training of these bods needs to wake their ideas up and realise that unless the potential recruit can speak, read and understand English 100%, they shouldn’t be in the job!

I rang on Friday for an emergency prescription as my surgery wouldn’t provide me it over the weekend. I was told I’d receive a call back on the same day within 12 hours from a clinician, I am still waiting for that phone call and went all weekend without medication. Poor service and good job it was life threatening medication.

Dysfunctional service. Called following son's asthma attack and was told doctor would call within an hour. Call never happened the whole day. In future 999 or A&E.

Absolute waste of space with pathetic advisors

Called this useless number after 8 hrs waiting still no doctor advice .it wants scrapping it's not fit for the purpose it was intended

Phoned at 11.09 this morning and still
waiting at 16.10 for someone to phone me back. Gave up and went to local hospital to get some Antibiotics for a UTI

Tried to reach the crisis team on 111 options 2. No further option given to access mental health at all, only links to meningitis issues etc. hold on phone for more options none of which take you to mental health team. Operators can only take your details and that’s about it! Completely useless service fit for nothing!!!!

This was once an excellent service. Sadly due to demand, and decreasing options offered by GP services, it is no longer able to keep up with demand, and is not fit for purpose.

Rang about a serious physical issue. Advised to attend the UTC. If that was a genuine option for me, I would have gone there myself. The lovely, polite operator seemed sensible, and offered a callback, and spoke to me adult-to-adult.
Over the next 1.5-2 hours, very unexpectedly, symptoms got a LOT worse. I called back as advised, to have to go over every single thing from scratch, to someone who was no better than AI. Absolutely pointless waste of time. They even asked if 'things had got worse'. Yes; I told you at the very beginning that was why I had rung back, as advised. Was informed someone would ring back, and advised to ring back if things got worse - why, so I could wait on hold for 40 minutes and go over everything again? Over 6 hours later and still waiting. All the pharmacies are closed. They offered an 'urgent ambulance' which is:
a) Clearly not needed
b) Would serve zero purpose as no paramedic could prescribe the medication that will stop the issue
c) At best will take me to ED, where I will be exposed to lots of infections, wait for ages, have blood tests to confirm that yes whilst things are significantly worse than before, I don't meet threshold for transfusion (which I am not advocating for; I do not need one).
d) Take an ambulance away from someone who genuinely needs one at a time when the ambulance service are also stretched.

111 no longer serves a purpose. It either needs an entire overhaul, or to be scrapped and the funds put into increasing UTCs or similar.

Absolutely awful. Having a mental health crisis, apparently you get to speak to a health professional, but you don't, you get an unsympathetic, irritated operator who refers you to someone you could have rang yourself. Just the job, thanks. 😢

My mental health is struggling and ringing 111 to be spending 15 minutes to get through to someone isnt helping. Twice and both times not being able to speak to anyone.

Rang 111 physical health as have a repeating physical health situation. They're more concerned to frame it as mental health. Yeah had this one pulled on me before...like actual pain, sounds like you are being a bit stressy like...that cost me a year where I didnt have to have an abscess a few years ago. You think you'd be better able to avoid 🤔 what was just a repeat experience, different year, different condition. Wrong!

dismissive, unhelpful, judgemental, irascible call handlers, MEAN.👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎

Absolutely first class. Filled in NHS 111 form at 7.08pm and advised to speak to nurse who would ring in 30 minutes. A GP phoned 20 minutes later and recommended that I see an out of hours doctor at a surgery near me. Phone call 5 minutes later and from a very polite receptionist who gave me an appointment for 20 minutes later. Was net by a very friendly receptionist and got to see the doctor straight away. What a professional and fabulous doctor he was. Thorough in listening to my concerns and very thorough on the examination. He had a lovely manner and a slight touch of humour and I came out feeling better than I did when I went in. Had a good conversation with the receptionist who was very friendly . Overall 10/10 for he comple service and everyone involved

Rang 111 - spoke to a nice lady. Expect a call back from a clinician within 24 hours - we're very busy. Fair enough it was a Saturday morning. 10:36pm that night someone rang me. I had just taken out hearing aids and gone to bathroom. Voicemail message left - we'll try again later. 7:15am next morning someone else rings me. I don't hear the phone I'm still in bed, with no hearing aids. Message left, we've tried to contact you, but couldn't so your case has been cancelled. So I start the process again - rang 111. Speak to a nice lady, opens a new case. Happily my health had improved substantially since the original call. Was told I would get a call back within 2 hours. 5 hours later I get a text telling me my case has been referred "to a service which is appropriate to meet your needs". No timescale is given and who is going to contact me isn't stated.

Waited from 10.40 last night to get a prescription for a drug that is controlled because I was unexpectedly running out and had enough till Sunday morning. Was not rung within 12 hours and still waiting. Run them several times but all I get is you are still waiting on the queue, I will chase them for you. But never a call. This is a desperataly dangerous situation as I am not supposed to suddenly stop this drug as I shall and pro bably am already going into withdrawal not to mention pain. A usless and very dangerous service.

I could write thesis on why it doesn’t work, but I’m sure people already have :-) Bureaucracy, funding, common sense, intersectionality etc.,

Is this a wind up?!? I phoned and after 2 hours nothing so filled out a form online & still nothing 2 hours later. Never heard from them! They ask the same stupid questions they are told to ask! Anything outside of those questions & they can’t cope! They are Not doctors or nurses. They are just a receptionist picking up the phone & they had no idea what I was talking about. I am almost unable to move at all with zero energy from severe fatigue and severe stomach pain. I’m a 50 year old woman & if I don’t call 999 I’ll probably just have to die!!