Hospitals 'appalling' at answering phone calls

(First Edition)

HOSPITALS in the newly reformed health service have a worse record for answering the telephone than industry, commerce, local government and the utilities.

A survey released yesterday demonstrated an 'appalling' record in the overall time taken to answer calls and in operator standards. A high number of calls were passed on to extensions where there was no reply, and too many answerphones were used.

Two-thirds of hospital switchboards monitored took 'a totally unacceptable time to answer; the worst six were Royal United (Bath), Southampton General, Leeds Infirmary, Manchester Royal Infirmary, East Surrey and St Thomas's in London.

Only 3 of the 111 hospitals monitored in February and March answered all calls within three rings - Ayrshire Central, Mid Staffordshire Health Authority and Newbury District. A further 19 were 'acceptable'.

The Lancashire-based research company Teleconomy said 22 per cent of calls were abandoned with no reply after 45 seconds.

It found the quality of operator handling 'very low', with '90 per cent of hospitals failing to project a courteous and welcoming response'.

Although 23 of the 111 hospitals surveyed achieved a 90 per cent performance level answering an extension or direct line call within three rings, in the remaining 88 hospitals, 148 out of 1.050 calls to extensions were abandoned with no reply.

The survey concludes: 'This extension-user failure rate of 14 per cent is alarming high. Commerce and industry find 3 per cent is unacceptable.'

The results will embarrass Whitehall and the Government, which promised a customer/consumer-friendly approach in the Citizen's and Patient's Charters.

Joan Sillis, the proprietor of Teleconomy, said: 'The general problem seems to be the initial time answering a call . . . We also found it was difficult contacting people inside hospitals, which is understandable because they are on the move.'

But, she said, others were improving their telephone service. In local government, for example, the poll tax, resulting in a flood of calls to councils, had 'put them on their mettle'.