BMA press releases archive

NHS 24 must take more clinical responsibility

(issued by BMA Scotland Thursday 22 Mar 2012)

NHS 24 must take more clinical responsibility

GPs have today [Thursday 22 March 2012] called on NHS 24 to ensure staff are qualified and skilled enough to triage patients accurately and safely. The call came at the annual GP conference in Clydebank where representatives also agreed that NHS 24 should take greater clinical responsibility for its actions.

Speaking after the debate, Dr Andrew Buist, Deputy Chairman of the BMA’s Scottish General Practitioners Committee said:

“NHS 24 has improved over the last few years, but the service isn’t developing as quickly as it needs to. It is important that NHS 24 prioritises its primary function of out of hours call handling to maintain and help improve the delivery of high quality out of hours services that meet public expectations. We hope to continue to work with NHS 24 on service improvements."

ENDS

Notes to editor

The motion which was passed unanimously by conference was:

That this conference:

i. believes that NHS 24 needs a culture change to take more clinical responsibility for its actions
ii. insists that NHS 24 should not give patients unrealistic expectations of when their case will be dealt with
iii. insists that all NHS 24 clinical staff are qualified and skilled enough to triage patients accurately and safely


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