111 number: 3,000 in Shropshire call non-emergency number
Nearly 3,000 people in Shropshire called the non-urgent 111 number from May to July – with one in six told they did not need to see a doctor or seek any other treatment.
There were 2,820 calls made to the 111 number over the three-month period; 944 in May, 901 in June and 975 in July.
Of those calls, around one in eight were advised to go to A&E, with just over half told to go to see their GP or an out of hours doctor.
One in six – 17 per cent – were not advised to seek medical advice in either a hospital or GP setting, according to the figures.
It comes as the Telford CCG board was told A&E waiting times are still below par, with two patients at Royal Shrewsbury left on trolleys for 12 hours or more waiting to be seen.
Hospitals across the country are expected to meet the Government gold standard, seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours of turning up at A&E.
But the current figure for the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital (SaTH) NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, is currently only at 84 per cent.
An NHS report says people are seen quicker at the Princess Royal, with two patients at Royal Shrewsbury left on a trolley for 12 hours or more. There were no breaches of the 12-hour target in Telford.
The reportr says: "The data represents Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust as one organisation, but the two sites perform differently.
"Usually, Princess Royal Hospital performs better than Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
"Princess Royal continues to perform better than Royal Shrewsbury Hospital but consistently fails on non-admitted four hour breaches.
"CCG commissioners continue to support SaTH daily. SaTH continue to work on their improvement plans."
One target definitely missed for this year, according to the papers, is the elimination of mixed sex accommodation.
There have been eight breaches of that – the target for the year was zero.