Question reference: S6W-00186
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 24 May 2021
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 June 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that COVID-19 helplines are frequently out of service or unmanned, with callers being placed in queues with hundreds of other patients and whether it will outline plans to introduce more efficient methods to allow people to access information, reschedule their vaccine appointment, check their vaccine status, and enquire about missed appointment letters.
Answer
The Scottish Government greatly values the work of those working on the national helpline. The national helpline is available 7 days a week between 8am and 8pm as an alternative channel for those patients who are not able to access content or services digitally. On average the helpline answers 23,000 calls on a weekday and around 14,000 calls are answered on each day over the weekend. There are between 200 to 400 people who staff the national helpline, dependent on demand patterns.
The average time taken to answer a call to the helpline, was less than a minute. There has been an increase in calls since 17 May 2021 which has meant people have been place in a queue on weekdays.
Having identified the increase in demand over the last two weeks, additional resources are being mobilised from the week, starting 31 May 2021 to reduce call wait times.