Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS 111 call handlers recruited in response to the covid-19 outbreak were given the NHS Pathways 6-week training course.

Call handlers in the core NHS 111 service receive 10 weeks of training.

The Coronavirus Response Service specifically recruited call handlers to answer COVID-related calls only, therefore they received training that mirrored the core NHS 111 training but was specific to COVID-19 only.

Call handlers were supported by clinicians and received face-to-face training in a classroom setting. All call handlers were audited to ensure they had reached the required competencies to deliver a high-quality service for patients.