CALLERS to the 111 helpline in Northumberland waited more than five times longer to access help last month than just five months previously.

This comes as the health services nationally experienced their busiest month on record.

Health think tank the Nuffield Trust said increasing waiting times for the urgent helpline were symptomatic of the high level of pressure on health services.

NHS England data shows it took an average of 1,906 seconds, or around 32 minutes, for North East 111 helpline operators to answer calls from people seeking medical help in September – more than five times longer than in April (336 seconds).

Of 105,723 calls made to the service, 54% were abandoned before being answered.

This was much higher than the percentage in April, when 16% of 112,379 callers gave up before speaking to an operator, and far above the NHS’s target of keeping abandoned calls under 3%.

Of the calls answered by North East 111 helpline, 15,657 were recommended to attend primary care services, such as their GP, 4,609 were told to attend an emergency department, and for 7,159 callers an ambulance was called.

Dr Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust, said: “Increasing waiting times across the board are a result of the continued impact of the pandemic including staff absences.

“There were an average of over 73,500 staff absent in the last week of September, and the increasing number of Covid hospitalisations we are seeing this autumn suggests a difficult winter ahead.”

Different figures show major A&E departments across the country treated more than 1.39 million people in September this year – the highest ever September figure.

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: “There is no doubt the NHS is running hot, with the highest ever number of patients seen in A&E in September, 14 times as many Covid patients in hospital compared to the same month last year, and record ambulance call-outs.

“But despite the busiest September on record, NHS staff have moved heaven and earth to make the best possible use of additional investment, delivering millions more tests, checks, treatments and operations."