Pulse in the Press: NHS 111 outage

An exclusive Pulse story on the NHS 111 outage, and the influx of patient calls GP practices should expect, has been picked up across the national media.

The exclusive from Pulse reports that GPs in London have been warned they could see an influx of patients signposted from NHS 111, after a ‘significant technical issue’ caused ‘total system outage’ today.

A letter from London’s ICBs and NHS England’s regional team, seen by Pulse, said the outage has left call handlers ‘working on paper’, ‘negatively affecting’ response times. It has also left NHS 111 unable book patients directly into GP practice slots for appointments, as the outage affects the electronic referral process.

The story has been mentioned in the Independent, the Guardian, the BBC, the Telegraph, the Times and Sky News.