NHS 111 failures led to early Covid deaths, investigation finds

A sign directs patients to an NHS 111 coronavirus testing site in London in March 2020. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/AFP/Getty Images

Multiple failures by the NHS 111 telephone advice service early in the pandemic left Covid patients struggling to get care and led directly to some people dying, an investigation has found.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) looked into the help that NHS 111 gave people with Covid in the weeks before and after the UK entered its first lockdown on 23 March 2020.