The Department of Health (DH) plans to establish an England-wide non-emergency healthcare service on a three-digit telephone number. The service will provide the public with quick and easy access to advice and information on non-emergency healthcare issues and services available in their local area. It will act as an entry point for patients seeking NHS services. Trained call-handlers will respond to requests for health or service information and assess the medical needs of callers to identify which NHS services are best placed to meet those needs and ensure that patients get to the right place first time. It is planned that the service will be piloted in a number of Strategic Health Authority (SHA) areas in 2010, with the intention to roll-out the service across England, subject to a positive evaluation of those pilots. The underlying policy behind the service has been determined by the DH.
Ofcom, as the body responsible for the administration of the UKs numbering resource, was asked by the DH to make a three-digit telephone number available, preferably 111, for the delivery of this non-emergency healthcare service. In order to designate a three-digit number for a specific service for use by all communications providers, we need to add this number to the list of such numbers annexed to General Condition 17 of the General Conditions of Entitlement, which covers the allocation, adoption and use of telephone numbers.
Having consulted on the proposals from 9 July to 20 August 2009, this statement sets out our decision to designate 111 for access to NHS non-emergency healthcare services. This designation will allow communications providers to carry this number to provide access to the non-emergency healthcare service.
During the consultation period we received 214 responses. We have carefully considered all those responses in coming to the conclusion set out in this statement.
The majority of responses we received were supportive of the introduction of a three-digit number for non-emergency healthcare services. Many respondents felt that the number would provide a simple and clear method for accessing those services, thereby reducing consumer confusion and potentially alleviating pressure on the 999/112 emergency services and accident and emergency (A&E) services.
Our consultation also discussed the DHs choice of the number 111, and the appropriate tariff for calling the service. Several respondents, particularly communications providers, indicated concerns about use of the number 111 because of the potential for misdials and ghost calls caused by pulse dialling. The most significant issue was whether calls to 111 would have a charge. If they did, then the cost of these misdials and ghost calls would, to some extent at least, fall on consumers and communications providers.
We have discussed the potential risks involved in using the 111 number with the DH. The DH has decided that the benefits of the memorability of 111 outweigh the potential additional costs involved in handling misdialled and ghost calls. It has provided a ministerial commitment that it intends to make the number free to caller and that the NHS will meet communications providers costs associated with carrying calls to 111, for both genuine and non-genuine calls.
The DH also developed, following discussions with communications providers, a number of technical approaches to reduce the number of these types of calls. On the basis of the commitment outlined above, combined with these technical approaches, we believe the key concerns put forward by communications providers have been addressed.
We are therefore designating 111 to the non-emergency healthcare service on the basis of the commitment from the NHS to cover the costs involved in making the number free to caller, which ensures that there is no financial detriment to consumers or communications providers through the use of the number. If the DHs policy of making calls to 111 free to caller were subsequently to change, or if the DH was not able to achieve this tariff through commercial negotiation with communications providers, we would be likely to revisit the designation of 111.
We have also assessed the need to address the issue of communications providers opening up access to the number. We consider that, at this time, it is appropriate to allow the DH to continue working to set up commercial arrangements, given that the number will be piloted prior to a full roll-out and it is our preference to intervene only where necessary. We, and the DH, accept that if such arrangements should prove insufficient, we may need to revisit these matters at a later date.
