I phoned NHS 111 for advice after mummy mishap but they called social services on me – I’m fuming & I’m not the only one
A MUM has been left fuming after NHS 111 called social services on her when she phoned them for advice.
Ami, 33, from Dorset, explained that she’d decided to put in a call to the medical helpline after a parenting mishap at home, which happened as she was doing some cleaning.
In a video on her TikTok page, she explained that she’d been bleaching her floors and carpets when her mop head broke.
So, she went into her kitchen for a split second to change the mop head.
And in that time, her 16-month-old daughter Kallie had managed to get herself over to the bucket of water Ami had been using to clean with, and put her hand in it.
Her dummy was in the water too, and Ami didn’t know whether or not she had put her wet hand, or the dummy, back into her mouth.
So she decided to call 111, to ask if she should go to A&E, and to potentially get some reassurance that her little girl was going to be fine.
When she initially spoke to the call handler, they ran through numerous questions about Kallie’s “symptoms”, before saying she needed to speak to a consultant, who would call her back.
Ami then proceeded to wait for two and a half hours to receive that call, at which point the consultant ran through very similar questions with her again.
After doing so, the consultant went off to ask someone else for advice, before returning to the call and saying that Ami didn’t need to take Kallie to hospital and just to keep an eye on her symptoms, of which she didn’t have any.
Then, at the end of the phone call, the medical professional told the worried mum that she’d called social services.
“Why have you rung social services on me? For ringing you for help and advice?” Ami said in the TikTok.
“As a concerned parent, I rang you for help and advice because I was unaware of what my child had done.
“If you were concerned, why didn’t you send me to the emergency room?
“Why call social services on me instead?”
Concluding her video, Ami raged: “Not only did I not get help, I got smacked in the face by f**king social services as well!”
“When 111 ring social services on you for ringing them for advice and help…” she wrote over the top of her video.
And she quickly found out in the comments section that she wasn’t the only one to have experienced a similar response from a 111 call.
TIMELINE OF THE NHS WAITING LIST
THE NHS waiting list in England has become a political flashpoint as it has ballooned in recent years, more than doubling in a decade.
The statistics for England count the number of procedures, such as operations and non-surgical treatments, that are due to patients.
The procedures are known as elective treatment because they are planned and not emergencies. Many are routine ops such as for hip or knee replacements, cataracts or kidney stones, but the numbers also include some cancer treatments.
This is how the wait list has changed over time:
August 2007: 4.19million – The first entry in current records.
December 2009: 2.32million – The smallest waiting list on modern record.
April 2013: 2.75million – The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition restructures the NHS. Current chancellor Jeremy Hunt was Health Secretary.
April 2016: 3.79million – Junior doctors go on strike for the first time in 40 years. Theresa May is elected Prime Minister.
February 2020: 4.57million – The final month before the UK’s first Covid lockdown in March 2020.
July 2021: 5.61million – The end of all legal Covid restrictions in the UK.
January 2023: 7.21million – New Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledges to reduce waiting lists within a year, effectively April 2024.
September 2023: 7.77million – The highest figure on record comes during a year hit with strikes by junior doctors, consultants, nurses and ambulance workers.
February 2024: 7.54million – Ministers admit the pledge to cut the backlog has failed.
August 2024: 7.64million – List continues to rise under Keir Starmer’s new Labour Government.
September 2024: 7.57million – A one per cent decline is the first fall since February and a glimmer of hope.
December 2024: 7.46million – The list has fallen for four consecutive months.
January 2025: 7.43m – still falling but slowly, likely due to added strain on emergency services and more cancellations due to illness over winter.
“Happened to me,” one wrote.
“I called 111, told to wait for a DR to call back. They called back at 3am, woke me from my sleep.
“I said I would take my daughter to Dr’s in the morn… next thing police & ambulance were at my door.
“Told me I have to take my daughter to the hospital now, a report was made, case opened, social visited and then they closed the case.
“No concerns at all but literally stress.”
“Same happened to me with my two year old,” another added.
“I only wanted some advice and like you wasn’t sure whether he’d breathed in some bath water which he slipped in.
“I was with him at the time but just wanted to be sure no water had gotten into his lungs.
“If we were doing anything wrong for social services to get involved I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be ringing 111 for advice.
“It’s crazy!”
And a third commented: “I once took my oldest to A&E as I had been doing the washing and a pod had dropped on floor without me knowing.
“I turned round and oldest had it all over his hands. I was so worried I took him to A&E.
“Luckily he hadn’t ingested, which I didn’t think he had but just to be sure I took him.
“Then had social services on my door as I wasn’t supervising him properly… terrified of asking for help even now.”
“What did social services say?” someone else asked Ami.
To which she replied: “They have said they don’t understand the phone call but are going to give a visit anyways.”
Others insisted the NHS 111 staff were just following protocol, with one writing: “It’s policy, which is good.
“They just need to ensure all is safe. It’s not a bad thing, you haven’t done anything wrong.
“They’ll ask you what happened and no issues.”
If we were doing anything for social services to get involved I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be ringing 111 for advice!
TikTok commenter
“I worked for 111 and any potential ingestion of chemicals we had to raise a safeguarding,” another said.
“Imagine it’s not you and it’s a person who doesn’t know to keep their chemicals out of reach of small children.”
Speaking to Fabulous Online about her experience, Ami said: “Thousands of UK children are being dragged through this system and for nothing.
“The NHS didn’t even want my child to be seen in A&E… they rang social services without seeing my daughter, without assessing her properly, and by just asking if there was symptoms on the phone.
“That’s no good and it’s certainly not a good enough reason to ring social services.
“It’s like saying if your children are at home… and the smallest thing happens you’re going to get social called on you.”
Fabulous Online has contacted the NHS for a comment regarding Ami’s situation.