On 1 November, the NHS in Oxfordshire will be launching a new service which will assess patients with urgent care needs via the NHS 111 telephone service to determine the right service for that patient.
If clinically appropriate, a patient could be booked a timeslot at the John Radcliffe or Horton General Hospital’s Emergency Departments. People with potentially life-threatening illnesses or injuries should still contact 999.
• Anyone with an urgent care need who contacts NHS 111 in Oxfordshire will have their details taken by a call handler and asked an important set of initial questions, to ensure that an emergency response (for serious or life-threatening illness or injury) is not required and to gather key information.
• If a clinical opinion is needed, the call handler then passes all the information to a clinical team member, who will call the patient back. These are experienced senior clinicians with local knowledge, who are able to offer informed advice and/or refer the patient to the most appropriate clinical setting for assessment.
• If the patient needs to be seen in their local ED they will then be issued with a timeslot for their arrival.
If patients attend ED without having gone through NHS 111, they will be assessed in a timely way by a clinical staff member and will receive emergency care and treatment if they need it.
This new arrangement in Oxfordshire is not unique, and other areas around the country are developing similar responses to develop their urgent care services. It builds on the existing role of NHS 111 in advising people on what treatment they need, and where to go for it.
