NHS 111: Training
(asked on 3rd February 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to review the adequacy of the minimum training requirements for NHS 111 operators.
Health advisors handling calls to NHS 111 use a computer aided dispatch and clinical decision support system called NHS Pathways. All call handlers and operators using the system undergo an intensive training programme. NHS Pathways is a clinical system and as such, its use to provide services to the National Health Service is carefully governed by a ‘Licence to Use’. Content within the Licence relates to the training and on-going continuous quality monitoring of staff.
NHS England also publishes the ‘National Service Specification for Integrated Urgent Care Services’. This outlines the need for providers to adhere to the clinical content of NHS Pathways and the requirement of the Licence that an NHS Pathways trained clinician is in the room at all times. The Specification also outlines how the commissioner and provider shall develop relationship with local Health Education England teams and Local Workforce Action Boards to ensure system-wide workforce planning is implemented.
The Specification is available at the following link: