NHS call staff boost (From Lancashire Telegraph)

NHS call staff boost

7:00pm Tuesday 30th May 2006 in

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SEVEN more staff have been taken on at an East Lancashire NHS call centre after complaints from patients that they were unable to get through.

The Blackburn centre which serves all of East Lancashire now has 17 full-time staff to take calls from patients who want to book their hospital appointment.

It comes after NHS complaints officers said patients were getting "lost in the system".

The centre manager today admitted some patients would have given up on getting an appointment after failing to get through.

But Pam Parry, boss of the referral management centre at Cobham House, Haslingden Road, said the extra staff would now make a difference.

She said: "We were hearing that patients were struggling to get through on the phone.

"We have employed seven extra people, creating six more full-time posts as a result."

Mrs Parry spoke after the Patient Advice and Liaison Service at Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale NHS Primary Care Trust highlighted concerns.

The PALS service said: "Elderly patients, in part-icular, find the automated telephone system difficult to negotiate.

"Patients have raised concerns about the new referral process and the options which are offered at the point of choice."