THE number of calls to St Helens's NHS 111 service has nearly halved from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, new figures show.

It means demand for the service has now fallen below the level this time last year.

The NHS believes fewer people are using the service now they know more about the virus and what to do if they suspect they have caught it.

NHS England figures show the North West including Blackpool 111 helpline received 181,922 calls in November, down from 347,877 received in March – a fall of 48 per cent.

Last month's figure was also 7 per cent down from October.

Demand for the service is now 10 per cent below the level in November last year, when there were 201,617 calls.

Calls to the helpline across England dropped to 1.6 million in November, compared to 1.7 million in October and 3 million in March.

It meant that, last month, the level of calls to the service had returned to the same level in November last year.

A report by charity Health Foundation said NHS 111 played a critical role in helping people with medical problems without the risk of unnecessary exposure to Covid-19 at their GP.

Tim Gardner, senior policy fellow at the group, said: "As the pandemic took hold in March, there was a large spike in activity, with the number of calls made to NHS 111 more than doubling from March 2019 to March 2020.

"The volume of calls returned close to normal levels in the summer, and so far there is no indication that we will see a surge in calls on the scale of March 2020, partly because of easier access to testing and also greater access to online assessment."

But he added: "The NHS is heading into a winter like no other as it works to care for a growing number of patients with Covid-19, maintain routine services to tackle the backlog of unmet need and manage the seasonal surge in emergency pressures.

"Even as the vaccines are rolled out, much of what happens in the next six months will depend on the effectiveness of the measures taken to control the spread of the virus."

Of the answered calls to the North West including Blackpool 111 helpline in November, just ​63 per cent were answered within 60 seconds, while 9 per cent of all calls were abandoned after 30 seconds of waiting.

The most common outcome saw the patient advised to either contact or go to a primary care service such as a GP – 51% of calls resulted in this.

In 11% of calls the patient was told to go to A&E, in 13 per cent an ambulance was sent and in 23 per cent advice was given over the phone or the caller hung up before it was given.

A spokesman for the NHS said: "NHS 111, both by phone and online has played a key role in helping millions of people to get convenient care and advice through the pandemic, and has significantly helped reduce the number of people having to go to A&E for non-urgent problems, since the service was launched."