A PHONE triage service which replaced NHS Direct has been found to be well-led, safe, effective, responsive and caring service.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the North West NHS 111 Service, which is provided by the North West Ambulance Service and covers Lancashire.

According to patients it performed better than the England average.

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However, the service has previously come under criticism by concerned medical professionals because the call handlers are are not medically trained and instead use the NHS Pathways computer system to signpost patients.

The previous service was nurse led NHS Direct The report, by Professor Steve Field, said: “Safety was seen as a priority. “Patient survey information for April to September 2014 demonstrated that the NHS 111 service being provided by the North West Ambulance Service was performing better than the England average for the same period.”

The results showed 91.9 per cent of respondents stated they were ‘very or fairly satisfied’ with their experience, and 3.3 per cent were ‘dissatisfied’ compared to 85.7 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

The NWAS was established on 1 July 2006 by the merger of the ambulance trusts from Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside, and Cumbria and Lancashire.

It is the second largest ambulance service in the country and works with 39 emergency departments, 18 out of hours services and 1,593 GPs.

The trust covers approximately seven million people across an area of 5,500 sq miles.

NWAS took over the running of the NHS 111 service in October 2013 and in March 2015 it was awarded a five year contract to provide the service.

The report stated that since 2013, NWAS had three serious adverse events for the NHS 111 service which resulted in an investigation and actions undertaken.

It stated that the service worked closely with the 33 clinical commissioning groups in the north west, staff were trained and monitored, patients were supported by the telephone triage.

The CQC has recommended that there should be periodic analysis of complaints, customer feedback and significant events.

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