TWO health bodies have agreed to work more closely following crisis talks about Dorset’s troubled NHS 111 call centre.

Senior members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) met executives from South West Ambulance Service Trust to discuss their concerns on Monday, February 29.

The St Leonards’ call centre has been at the centre of a storm following the tragic death of one-year-old William Mead from Penryn in Cornwall.

His worried mum called 111 when he was ill and a call handler at the centre, which is one of two covering Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, failed to realise how ill he was. The little boy died of sepsis hours later.

Pictures later emerged of staff apparently asleep at their desks and teenagers with tinsel in their hair taking urgent calls over the Christmas period.

Senior RCN officer Steve Pulsford wrote to executives at the trust in December and they agreed to meet him on Monday February 29.

Following the meeting a joint statement from the two bodies was released.

It read: “A productive meeting between the South West Ambulance Service and RCN took place on Monday.

“The meeting was arranged to discuss the concerns of RCN members working in the trust about the NHS 111 service and the two organisations have agreed to work more closely in future.

“Measures agreed include the set-up of working groups at SWASFT to look in detail at the concerns that have been raised.

“SWASFT has given assurances that RCN members working for the trust will be included in these groups.

“Regular monthly meetings will be arranged between SWASFT executives and the RCN senior officer for Devon to monitor progress.”

An investigation has also been launched by the Care Quality Commission into the service.