According to the Nuffield Trust, just under 3 million calls were made in March 2020 to 111, the non-emergency healthcare advice and support helpline in the UK, at least partly because people were encouraged to call it if they were displaying symptoms of Covid-19. Of those, “only” 1.4 million calls were answered. More recently, 1.6 million calls were made in January 2025, of which 87 per cent were answered within sixty seconds.
Newcastle accented Gary (Sam Macgregor), despite his very best efforts, is subjected to investigative procedures after a complaint is made about the handling of an incoming call. NHS 111 has its targets, which (they tell call handlers like Gary) are set by the Department of Health, though this play very strongly not so much suggests but firmly asserts that patients are essentially treated, at least by management, as statistics far more than they are treated as people. In other words, get the damn phone calls answered because that’s the most important thing. Whether the callers live or die is secondary: there isn’t a target for that.
Comfort breaks are strictly monitored, and it all has the feel of working for Amazon (I found out about what that’s like from a Fringe show a few years ago), with employees being pulled up for the most minor of issues. The reasons why there are delays in following up on enquiries to NHS 111 are clearly and creatively set out in this production – essentially, if a case needs to be escalated, there are only so many people available to deal with such cases, so all call handlers can do is apologise and promise the caller someone will ring them back as soon as possible.
The whole NHS 111 service is inefficient, because some cases have already been taken care of by the time the call is returned – if it is returned. The patient and/or their friends/relatives might have called 999 instead, the case having ‘escalated’ by itself to an emergency. The show works well – there are, I would imagine, a lot of tech cues as voiceovers are deployed to portray various calls, though of course Gary’s own sections in the dialogue are all spoken live.
The toll on the workforce is palpably portrayed – it’s one of those call centres where the relentless pursuit of targets puts pressure on employees to the point they ‘perform’ worse than they would do in a more civilised working environment! The show gives audiences a no-holds-barred portrayal of the proverbial pressure cooker, without being saccharine. A gripping and thoughtful production.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Set over the course of a single, nightmare shift in a London call centre, the play takes audiences into the rarely seen world of the unsung heroes of healthcare – the call handlers who juggle relentless targets, limited resources, and human lives on the line.
Cast: Sam Macgregor, Gabriela Chanova
Voiceover Cast: Gabrielle MacPherson, Jack Wakely, Amy Fleming, Saher Shah, Lottie Walker, Ben Target, Siân Dolding, Fergus Leathem, Yasmin Haque, Roger Conneff, Jake Wilson Craw
Written by Sam Macgregor
Directed by Laura Killeen
Sound Designer: Johnny Phethean
HOLD THE LINE
Pleasance Courtyard at the Edinburgh Fringe
30 July to 25 August 2025
