NHS 24 in spotlight again amid fresh calls for service response time to be improved
Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane says 'this should be a wake-up call"
PHONING IT IN NHS 24 in spotlight again amid fresh calls for service response time to be improved
THE swamped NHS24 helpline finally hit its target for the first time since 2023 — after an army of extra staff were temporarily drafted in
Bosses ramped up frontline workers by 71 per cent, slashing average answering times of 20 minutes to just seconds.
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The service answered 38,578 calls over the Easter holiday weekend
Credit: GETTY
But the temporary move, resulting in the goal of a wait of five minutes or less being reached, has been slammed after performance slumped since Easter.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: 'This should be a wake-up call for Health Secretary Neil Gray to permanently fund frontline healthcare, rather than it being squandered on backroom bureaucracy.'
Scottish Labour counterpart Jackie Baillie said: 'It's right that action is taken to make sure people can get help over bank holiday weekends, but Scots shouldn't have to settle for a second-rate service the rest of the year.'
Average call answering time was just nine seconds on Good Friday, compared to 17 minutes the day before, NHS data shows.
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Calls were then picked up within 23 seconds on the Saturday and six seconds on Easter Sunday.
However, there were 825 staff on duty on Good Friday, compared to an average of 283 in recent weeks.
The Saturday saw 851 call handlers instead of a previous average of 689; and on Easter Sunday there were 832, compared to 680.
The service answered 38,578 calls over the holiday week, compared to 29,904 for the previous seven days.
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NHS24 said: 'Staffing is planned to manage anticipated increases in calls based on predicted demand from data from previous years.
'During non-peak demand periods, we ensure that there is always a safe level of clinical supervision available through careful resource planning.
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'Due to the necessity of clinical input into most 111 calls, we have focused our recruitment efforts and anticipate reaching full establishment by summer 2025.'
The Scottish Government was contacted for comment.
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