Thanks to Glasgow Correspondent, Brian McGowan, for alerting me to this.
Following BBC Scotland editorial guidelines, I’m going to break with those at TuSC, to rely on a small number of social media sources warning of a crisis in NHS England’s 111 service.
This tweet though from a clearly lefist individual seems convincing:
The source provides this evidence of her employment at Intelling_Ltd:
I’m aware of no such problems with NHS Scotland’s 111 service. Were there any, Reporting Scotland would be headlining them. This is not surprising given what the Scottish Health Secretary had to say at the time it was set up:
The Scottish NHS 111 service, launched yesterday, is the ‘complete contrast’ to the English version, the Scottish health minister has said.
As of yesterday, Scottish patients needing the telephone advice and out-of-hours gateway service NHS 24 will be able to use the three-digit phone number that was already introduced in England last year. However, in Scotland only the telephone number has changed while the service remains to be run as NHS 24, a nurse-led service which is publicly run.
Commenting on the launch, Scottish health minister Alex Neil stressed that the Scottish and English services were ‘in complete contrast’ with one another.
He said: ‘By introducing the 111 number we are removing any barrier for the public to access the health advice out of hours. This will help to ensure people have access to health information and support, including access to a GP, when they really need it.’
‘In Scotland, the 111 number will be run by NHS 24 as a public service, in public hands – serving the needs of patients. This is in complete contrast to the approach adopted by the NHS in England, where different organisations, including private sector providers, are contracted to provide the number in different regions.’
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 