Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking following the results of the recent audit of calls to the covid-19 clinical assessment service in August 2020.

A recent audit of the COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS) indicated a need to provide focused training for nurses and allied health professionals. The Coronavirus Response Service Board and NHS 111 senior leaders made the decision to support these staff with further training on the NHS Pathways triage system to enable them to work as clinical advisors in the core NHS 111 service rather than the CCAS.

The CCAS is currently operated by general practitioners who are regularly audited to ensure patients receive high-quality clinical advice.