WORRIED doctors have pulled the plug on a misfiring new NHS care helpline.

The problems that have beset the new NHS 111 service since it was introduced in Worcestershire have convinced county GPs to abandon it, to ensure “patient safety is not compromised”.

The decision has been taken jointly by the county’s three new clinical commissioning groups who say that they do still plan to return to the service – although this will not be for at least two months.

NHS 111 was introduced in Worcestershire last month – initially just to handle out-of-hours calls – and immediately ran into problems.

There have been reports of patients waiting hours for what should be instant medical advice, while leaked figures showed that over the busy Easter weekend as few as 75 per cent of calls were answered within the target time of 60 seconds and 13 per cent of callers gave up and abandoned calls entirely.

The decision to ditch NHS 111 means the county will return to its previous out-of-hours arrangements for the foreseeable future, with calls being handled by private firm Harmoni.

Mari Gay, director of quality and patient safety at South Worcestershire clinical commissioning group, issued a memo to health workers on Friday detailing the decision.

She said that GPs had been “central in making the decision”.

“All three CCGs in Worcestershire are working closely with the national commissioning board and the provider of the NHS 111 service, NHS Direct, to ensure that patient safety is not compromised,” she said. “This decision has not been taken lightly but has been made in the interests of ensuring service quality.”

Phonelines were previously switched-back to the Harmoni service for one weekend shortly after NHS 111 was introduced.

But Mrs Gay said that, this time, the NHS 111 lines would not be switched back on until they are certain that everything is in order and working as it should be.

“The intention is still to return to the NHS 111 service in the medium-term once the service has been fully tested and any operational and technical issues have been rectified,” she added.

A spokesman for West Midlands NHS 111 said: “This is a short-term measure and was a joint decision made between the clinical commissioning groups for Worcestershire and the NHS 111 project board in order to ensure patient safety is not compromised.”