Tuesday, August 31, 2010

An 111 wind

Spot the difference:

From July 2009: Labour Government tests a new "111" phone service for non-emergency health care. This is four years after spending £40 million on the trial of a "101" phone service for non-emergency police calls that was scrapped. Yes, £40 million - how??? Anyway, this 111 malarkey gets slagged off by the British Medical Association and a lobbying group called Parents OutLoud for introducing a new layer of confusion.

From August 2010: Coalition Government announces trials of a new "111" phone service for non-emergency health care. It is widely praised by the NHS and the Patients Association.

Probably shows where my head is, but when I read these stories my first thought was that 111 looks a lot like "ill". A famous piece of Brian Johnston commentary came to mind when he read out the cricket scores and announced: "Yorkshire 232 all out, Hutton ill... I'm sorry, Hutton 111."

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