Abandoned 111 calls triple in a month Some 29,100 people hung up after waiting more than half a minute for an operator to answer their 111 call during March, compared with just 6,976 in February. Although the total number of calls also increased by 140,000 during the same period as the 111 pilot scheme was adopted more widely, the proportion of abandoned calls increased from 3.2 per cent to 8.1 per cent. The Royal College of General Practitioners last week warned that the "problematic" roll-out of the service had left patients unsure where to go for help, with many having "lost confidence" in the system. More than a month after the official launch, seven of 44 regions in England have still not fully launched the service. There have been widespread complaints about calls going unanswered, particularly at weekends, and in some areas there have been vast increases in the number of people attending A&E departments. A spokesman for the General Practitioners Committee West Midlands (GPCWM) said on Monday that the service's "collapse" in the region could have been avoided if doctors had been listened to. Dr Mary McCarthy said: "There have been distressing instances reported to us of terminally ill patients waiting hours for a response or of patients being left in pain or discomfort. The quality of advice being given to the public also appeared to be questionable in some instances. Any delays in the quality of information being relayed to the public or delays in passing it to patients could undermine patient safety. This is clearly an unacceptable situation.