Ipswich NHS 111 Contact Centre, Suffolk

Our Care Coordination Centre, also known as the Contact Centre, in Ipswich, Suffolk, serves as the hub for delivering urgent care to the public through our NHS 111 service - operated by Integrated Care 24 (IC24).

When patients call 111, they are greeted by our Health Advisors, who are the first point of contact. The NHS 111 service handles caller assessments, offers advice, conducts evaluations, provides diagnoses, and outlines next steps. Our NHS 111 contact centres serve as the initial point of contact for these patients. This service ensures the public receives appropriate advice, information, and treatment when needed.

Clinicians, including nurses, physiotherapists, doctors, paramedics, and other Allied Health Professionals, are on hand to assist callers. While some patients receive guidance without needing to visit Accident and Emergency departments, others are directed to primary care services, emergency services, or treatment centres.

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Careers with us

The clinical job roles we recruit for at our Call Centres are Health Advisors and Clinical Advisors (although, technically, Health Advisors are non-clinical). For our Clinical Advisors we recruit people with a clinical background and experience, notably nurses.

Clinical Advisor

Our Clinical Advisors are active healthcare professionals with a registration with the NMC or HCPC. So, we hire nurses and allied healthcare professionals for this role. Our Clinical Advisors would receive requests for assistance, treatment, or care at our NHS 111 contact centres.

Using telecommunications, they are responsible for assessing callers with a wide spectrum of clinical conditions; advising them on home care management, next steps and referring them on to further care when appropriate. The computer-based clinical decision system will facilitate and support the advice given. They work as part of a multidisciplinary team providing high-quality, evidence-based healthcare to the immediate needs of the patient.

“I enjoy having that one to one time with a patient. It's uninterrupted time with that patient. It's not that way when you're working in a busy acute hospital. You know, you actually feel like you're making a difference in that person's life.”

Gigi Peverill - Clinical Advisor at IC24 (read Gigi's interview with Nurses.co.uk)

Health Advisor

Health Advisors work in our NHS 111 contact centres (Care Co-ordination Centre) and they manage calls from patients and healthcare professionals with urgent and non -urgent healthcare needs, using the Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) appropriately to direct the patient to the service suitable for their needs. Our Health Advisors deal with a variety of calls that range from minor illnesses to life threatening situations every day.

Technically, Health Advisors are non-clinical, and so your function is to triage and feed into the clinical side of the system.As a Health Advisor at IC24, when our patients dial 111 you will be the first point of contact and the voice at the end of the line. It'll be up to you to deliver sometimes life-changing advice, triaging a wide range of calls and providing safe, effective assessments and non-clinical advice using the NHS Pathways System.

“The bulk of the calls we deal with are things like throat infections, during infection. It can range from a lot of things, for instance people that possibly might be having a heart attack. It’s not an easy job, but if you’re the type of person who likes to help people, it is a very rewarding job.”

- Ian Maben - Health Advisor, IC24

Benefits

IC24 employees can enjoy benefits including the blue light card, NHS Pension Scheme access, and Heartbeat. The blue light card helps bring savings for some of the brands you use. It is the UK’s leading discount provider for the emergency services, NHS, and social care sector - saving money at a wide range of providers from Cineworld to Halfords, Hotpoint, Odean and more.

Heartbeat recognises the hard work of everyone at Integrated Care 24, through peer-to-peer recognition, valuable wellbeing resources and housing your employee discounts. Heartbeat benefits portal is exclusive for all Integrated Care 24 employees.

Practical information about working at our centre in Ipswich

IC24 in Ipswich is in the eastern part of Suffolk. Close to the call centre are retail areas (supermarkets, convenience stores and small independents). Ipswich (for those who are considering relocating) offers cinemas, theatres, restaurants and pubs. Young families can know that there are a choice of primary and secondary schools. Ipswich railway station is a 10 minute drive from the call centre. The railway links passengers with London (Liverpool Street), Norwich and Cambridge.