Over 400,000 calls made to the NHS 111 service were abandoned in the South West last year, research has revealed.
The data shows that a call to 111 was abandoned every 80 seconds in 2022, with nearly one-fifth of all calls being aborted by patients.
In December 2022, 39% of calls made to the service in the South West were abandoned, totalling 111,711 calls that month alone.
On average, this equates to 3,604 abandoned calls every day throughout the region. The average time it took for the NHS 111 service to answer calls in December was almost 20 minutes.
The research data was commissioned by the Liberal Democrats and conducted by the House of Commons Library.
Comparing the figures to those from the previous year, the data showed that there were almost 80,000 fewer abandoned calls in the region in 2021.
However, in 2022, there were close to 220 more calls abandoned every day by patients in need.
For the first three months of 2021, abandoned calls were recorded using a different data set that did not include those within the first 30 seconds of contact. The House of Commons Library estimates that these calls account for around 10% of abandoned calls.
The Liberal Democrats have called for an urgent plan to reduce pressure on ambulance services, which includes recruiting more GPs and addressing the crisis in social care.
The party is also urging the government to launch a recruitment drive for NHS call handlers in areas where they are needed, including encouraging retired and former staff to return.
Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, has been contacted by constituents over the issue of 111 call waiting times this winter.
Many spoke of their struggle to speak to someone on the phone or arrange a call back from a clinician as they tried to care for poorly family members.
In December, a local resident, whose child’s temperature had risen to above 40 degrees with blue lips and cold extremities, decided to call 111.
They had considered calling for an ambulance but said they did not want to wait outside of the local hospital, potentially stuck in an ambulance with their child.
When they got through on the 111 service, they were told to expect a call back within six hours. After 13 hours, no call had been received.
The resident then called their GP surgery as soon as it opened after staying up through most of the night, caring for their ill child waiting for 111 to call back.
After sitting for over an hour on the phone with the GP surgery, waiting for the call queue in front of them to be answered, they again were told to wait for a call back from a doctor.
The GP surgery contacted them over 7 hours later and emergency antibiotics were issued for the child.
111 did call the person back, 23 hours after their initial call and after the situation had been resolved.
Wera Hobhouse commented: “People should be able to get the care they deserve when they need it. No one should be forced to abandon a call because wait times are so long when they are in need of medical help.
“A robust long-term workforce plan must be brought forward immediately. Without it, the NHS will be exposed to the same winter crises year after year and my constituents will be left dealing with these awful situations again.”
“The Conservative Government’s record on health has been a shambles and these figures are yet further proof that we cannot trust them to run the NHS.”