Assembly Government considering copying disastrous English 111 number.

One of the  advantages of Devolution  is that you can look at other nations  are doing things and adapt the best practise of others and mould it to suit you.

However the Welsh Assembly  may have got it wrung in  considering copying England  and replacing NHS Direct with a 111 number.

As the Wasting Mule reports : Concerns have been raised about a controversial non-emergency helpline service as it looks set to be introduced in Wales

The new 111 helpline in England, designed for people with urgent but non-life threatening health problems, has been criticised for failing to meet patient demand.Reports have claimed that many patients have been unable to have their call answered quickly enough by the new service set up as a replacement to NHS Direct.The Welsh Government is now considering introducing the service in Wales to replace NHS Direct Wales with proposals going before Health Minister Mark Drakeford during the summer.

Western Mail 29th 2013



But Only last week:

Doctors at the British Medical Association's GPs conference in London said lessons had to be learned after the "disastrous" roll-out of the service in recent months.
The phone line - which has replaced NHS Direct - has been dogged by reports of calls going unanswered and poor advice.
GPs said they had seen their workloads increase because of the problems.
There are actually 46 different services across the country (Englanf), run by a variety of organisations including private firms and ambulance crews.
Some places have seen the service suspended, while others are relying on the support of old NHS Direct teams to deal with calls.
GPs at the conference in London voted unanimously in favour of a motion calling for an independent inquiry over debacle.

BBC 23rd May 2013 

Mark Drakeford should  consider waiting to see how the service in England responds to the criticism and wait to see if they can improve it substantially before adopting it.

There is no reason to do things just because it is happening in England  nor is a reason to reject it.

 But in the case of replacing NHS direct with a similar 111 to our neighbours. It may be that we need to consider a totally different alternative and create a service based entirely on our own solution to Welsh needs.