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Beyond the Ward: Taking the role of NHS call handlers

18 August 2020

After their clinical placements came to a sudden halt as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, King's medical students have volunteered their time to help on the NHS 111 call service.

Shahid Iqbal, 3rd year medical student, and Erni Hoti, in his 4th year of medical school at King's, volunteered to train to handle NHS 111 calls in a busy London service. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their clinical placements were brought to a sudden halt, so they wanted to find a way to contribute to the coordinated response in combating this unprecedented health crisis.

Overnight, they became key workers too, travelling to the designated clinical commissioning group building and working their 12-hour shifts.

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We see doctors and nurses as our colleagues, and have friends and family that were out there on the front line. Seeing their struggle, especially in the early stages of the pandemic, made us really want to help.– Shahid Iqbal

The students learnt to use a decision support tool and would use an algorithmic-like system on the calls to decide if advice from a clinician was needed or if a call back could be scheduled for the less urgent calls. In some emergency cases, they had to arrange ambulances for the patients by calling 999 and explaining the case.

To begin with, I remember being quite anxious when I had to call an ambulance, I’d be pacing around and triple checking the patient’s address. As time went on, I became more confident with these emergency calls and the level of pressure that came with them.– Shahid Iqbal

Shahid explains that this ‘hands on’ experience taught them to work under pressure in a way that they would not have developed in a hospital environment. The calls they received were extremely diverse ranging, from emergency cases such as cardiac sounding chest pain or potential strokes, to less urgent ones such as dental pain or patients seeking simple health advice. Handling these calls gave the students a real insight into the various health concerns people have.

During the peak of the pandemic, of course there were a lot of COVID-19 related calls, with patients complaining of shortness of breath, consistent coughing and temperatures, but as the months progressed, the answering of calls began to feel more like a generic 111 service.

We are still working now, despite being less busy, so I haven’t had real time to reflect. However, it was such a relief to be able to contribute during this crisis and say that I played my role during a global pandemic. I just didn’t want to feel powerless.– Shahid Iqbal

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