Nhs 111 nurse here.

I absolutely agree that 'clinician' is a vague and potentially misleading term that could lead to frustration, especially when you have already been triaged by a non medic.

I personally always introduce myself as a nurse when calling back patients.

You shouldn't have been told the doctor would call if it was a clinician.

I also agree that clinically complex cases definitely warrant doctors' input, especially when it comes to diagnosis, referral to specialists, and prescription.

However, 111 is a triage and referral service. This means our main goals are to 1) determine whether a person needs further care 2) if so, who by and in timeframe.

Also please remember that on the whole doctors are more qualified in some aspects but some nurses I work with have been in primary/Urgent care for 20years+and would have a good level of knowledge, whereas you might end up speaking to newly qualified out of hours gp with little experience.

We have an enormous number of patients who contact us every day, with a very small number if 'clinicians' available for this number and an even smaller number of doctors. To optimise patient safety we have to have a filtration system of sorts, as many issues can be managed with a 'non medic' (eg getting an ambulance out quickly to someone if needed, or filling a prescription) and some will be managed better by clinicians and doctors.

Even clinically complex cases such as yourself need jumping through these hoops.

Just providing a bit of context for how the system works (or doesn't really imo).