By Democrat reporter
More than a quarter of a million NHS24 calls were not picked up last year, according to recently released figures.
The – obtained via a freedom of information request by the Scottish Liberal Democrats – showed that 16.5 % of calls to the NHS24 111 service went answered.
A total of 1,728,233 calls were made to the 111 service last year. Out of these, 285,158 were left unanswered.
The freedom of information request also shows that in 2023/24, the longest wait for a call to be answered was more than 3 hours in January 2024. The average wait for a call to be answered was almost 28 minutes in March 2024.
The recent figures show a decrease in comparison to last year when 477,965 phone calls were not picked up out of 1,919,537 calls made. In light of the recent figures, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrat Alex Cole-Hamilton, right, criticised the Scottish Government’s ‘mismanagement’ of the health service.
Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “As these figures show, too many calls are going unanswered and people are facing very long waits before they get through to someone who can help. Under the SNP’s mismanagement, this is another part of our NHS that is crying out for help. From excruciating waits at A&E to record numbers of people stuck in hospital, patients are suffering and staff are beyond breaking point.
“NHS 24 is committed to improving all waiting times, especially during peak periods when demand is high. We continue to support and invest in the service, which now has a record number of call handlers to support with inevitable increases in demand over the winter period.”