NHS Direct has pulled out of providing NHS 111 in two areas of the
country and said the contracts it is currently delivering in other areas
have become ‘financially unsustainable’ in a major blow to the rollout
of the new urgent care number. The provider was contracted to cover a third of England’s population in 111 different areas with the new service, but papers for its latest board meeting show that it has been forced to cancel NHS 111 contracts in Cornwall and North Essex.
Pulse revealed details from a leaked internal NHS report earlier this month that questioned the future viability of NHS Direct after revealing a catalogue of failures during its rollout of NHS 111. This
latest revelation from the chief executive’s report for its July
meeting, cast a further blow for the beleaguered provider, which said in
the report it is currently delivering only 30% to 40% of its contracted
call volumes. Chief executive Nick Chapman said in his report:
‘Agreement has been reached with commissioners for North Essex and for
Cornwall, that NHS Direct is not in a position to mobilise the 111
services for those areas.‘These commissioners are expected now to
make arrangements with alternative providers to mobilise the 111
service in their area.’ He went to say that in live NHS 111 areas
contracted to the provider, staff levels were ‘above those planned to
handle the full 100% of contracted call volumes’ and warned: ‘As a
result of the lower than contracted call volumes, we expect to receive
substantially lower income than originally budgeted.
‘The
imbalance of costs and income on NHS Direct’s 111 contracts means that
each of the 111 contracts as they currently stand are financially
unsustainable.’
More on this story here.
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