NHS Alliance calls for input on NHS 111

Clinical commissioners feel a lack of engagement with NHS 111, which they believe is another example of top-down policy rather than local innovation, the NHS Alliance has said.

A survey published today by the NHS Alliance reveals that more than half of the clinical leaders polled feel they have little or no engagement with the telephone triage and advice service.

Only 11% of of the 51 people who responded to the survey said they had experienced “good engagement; my view was taken into account”, with 32% saying there had been “some engagement, but no real ability to affect decision making."

Around three quarters of respondents said “there is little scope for local clinicians to shape this service to meet local needs”, and the same number were not confident that the introduction of NHS 111 in their area would be a success.

All agreed with the statement: “This roll out is top down politics not local empowerment." NHS 111 is due to be rolled out across England by April 2013.

NHS Alliance urgent care lead Rick Stern said there was general support for the idea of an easy access telephone number for people with non-life threatening health problems.

But he said there were substantial concerns about the speed and style of implementation.

The NHS Alliance wants to work in partnership with the Department of Health and other national partners to make sure that local commissioners are actively involved in the deployments in the future.

“Our members currently feel disengaged and believe there is little room for local flexibility,” Stern added.

“We need to take steps to address this now, as otherwise both the 111 programme and the credibility of local clinical commissioning will suffer.”

The NHS Alliance report makes a number of recommendations to help boost the level of local engagement and influence with the service, such as offering opportunities for key stakeholders to get together and discuss issues and determine a way forward.

It recommends letting clinical commissioning groups pause procurement processes if they feel there is not enough local flexibility in their specifications. And it says they should be encouraged to take more active leadership of the roll-out of NHS 111.