I’ve been waiting eagerly for the “soft launch” of the new 111 service for non-emergency medical calls in the North East. It was planned for July of this year, and made it into the Northern Echo in August, but just how “soft” the launch has been may be indicated by whether you’ve even heard about the service.

The idea is that if you’ve a medical problem which feels urgent, but not such an emergency that you feel you need a flashing blue light to turn up immediately at your door and so demands a 999 call, you dial 111 and get to talk to a trained call handler, with nursing staff backup, who will decide on the best advice for you. In fact, it’s the same team who handle the 999 calls. If they think you really do need an ambulance, they’ll arrange that, but more probably they’ll direct you to the most effective source of urgent, but not emergency, care, whether it’s your doctor’s surgery next morning or your local Urgent Care centre.

That’s really significant for us in the Derwent Valley Area. For a year now Shotley Bridge Hospital has had 24 hour “Urgent Care” facilities available, but has hidden its light under a bushel with little or no publicity and widespread public ignorance of the change.

Now I’m hoping that the arrival of the new 111 service will result in more of the right people being directed to Shotley Bridge Hospital Urgent Care centre and getting the service they need close to home. We all know that a service like that will only be maintained if it gets the right level of use.

I believe we all need to be told very clearly exactly what is meant by “Urgent Care”, and push the matter regularly at the relevant council committe meetings. For now, though, I’m glad that there’s the experimental new 111 number for us to ring in the North East. Even if you’re not sure whether you need Emergency Care, Urgent Care, or just Care, ringing 111 should put you through to the people who know the difference and make sure you get the care you need.