119 UR post (#318)

A post about the recent UR the NBS team did with the 119 call handlers
and team leads

---------

Co-authored-by: Frankie Roberto <[email protected]>

Author: jolumley-nhs

app/book-a-vaccination/2025/12/119-ur/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+---
+title: "Testing our non-digital routes"
+date: 2025-12-16
+description: "What we learned during research with the 119 telephone booking service"
+tags:
+  - appointments
+  - assisted digital routes
+  - telephone booking
+---
+
+The Book a vaccination service (NBS) offers a telephone booking service, via 119. Users who cannot or do not want to book using the online service can call to book an appointment. 119 call handlers use a version of the online booking system to book appointments for callers.
+
+## What we did
+
+We did user research with 119 call handlers. We wanted to understand:
+
+- how they support callers during the vaccination booking journey
+- what challenges they face
+- where the National Booking Service (NBS) could better meet their and their callers needs. 
+
+Call handlers have an important role helping people who cannot or prefer not to book online. It's important to hear from them and understand their experience.
+
+We held online group sessions with 3 call handlers and a team leader in each session.
+
+## What we learnt
+
+### The 119 service is essential for non-digital users
+
+5% of all NBS bookings are via 119 (around 1 in 20). 242,963 bookings have been made using the 119 service during autumn/winter 2025 so far.
+
+There are several reasons that users contact 119, including:
+
+- seeking reassurance and human support
+- feeling anxious or unsure about using digital services
+- trying to understand if they are eligible
+- asking for help with issues at sites (bookings cancelled, vaccines not available)
+- barriers using the online service (access needs, low digital confidence, limited English)
+
+This tells us that the 119 service is an essential alternative route for non-digital users.
+
+Callers find out about 119 in a few different ways, including:
+
+- text, letters, emails, or from the NHS app
+- referrals from GPs or pharmacies
+- users who have used the service before
+
+### Non-digital users have different expectations about how our service will work
+
+119 users have a different mental model compared to how the online booking service works.
+
+They don’t expect to have to answer certain questions in the order the call handlers ask them. Some callers want information about vaccination sites before they answer other questions. This causes frustration when the call handlers need to follow the NBS question order.
+
+Some callers hang up after choosing their appointment time, but before getting the booking confirmation. When this happens, call handlers are unable to complete the booking.
+
+GPs and pharmacists often send people to 119 when they can’t provide answers. Some callers expect 119 to access their medical history or provide clinical advice. This means that people call 119 with the expectation that they can find out if they are eligible. The 119 call handlers are not clinically trained to answer questions like this.
+
+### Similar frustrations around booking online and by phone
+
+119 callers experience similar frustrations to online bookers, including:
+
+- unclear information around eligibility, particularly for under 75s
+- being unable to find existing bookings to change or cancel them
+- being unable to match people who call using Patient Data Spine (PDS)
+- issues with cancelling appointments less than an hour before the appointment time
+- sites not updating bookings properly
+- access needs not being well understood, and accessibility filters hiding suitable sites
+- callers expect to be able to book for more than 1 person at a time
+- lack of reliability for walk-ins causes frustration for 119 callers
+
+Call handlers experience their own pain points when trying to book for callers, inluding:
+
+- 119 call handlers cannot enter reference numbers, which can make it hard to find bookings
+- When callers want to book for more than 1 person, call handlers need to take them all the way through the journey multiple times
+
+Call handlers told us that callers often want to change their existing appointments, to add or remove vaccines to the appointment (co-admin). The call handlers aren’t able to change booked appointments in this way.
+
+## Next steps
+
+This research gave us valuable insights into how the 119 service could work better for our users.
+
+Some actions we have identified following this research are:
+
+- think about improving the interface that 119 call handlers use to book appointments for callers
+- observe more 119 calls, to help identify areas where the 119 booking process could be refined or improved
+- continue research efforts with the 119 team to develop themes and understanding of the whole vaccination booking service
+- use these findings to improve both the 119 service and the NBS service