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Original poster

Now they're going to axe NHS Direct...

83 replies

thetraveller · 28/08/2010 06:53

So now NHS Direct up for the chop www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/27/nhs-direct-health-phone-service

I've found NHS Direct to give excellent service on the few occasions I have spoken to one of their nurses with concerns about my baby son. No way would I have any confidence in the judgement of an "adviser" who has done a 60 hour course (the proposed alternative for a health line which can save money). I'm afraid I would be clogging up the local A&E Department instead. If lots of other did the same, surely this would increase rather than decrease costs.

Aaagh. Everything Lansley says makes me so mad (and I'm usually a relatively calm person!). I dread to think what our health service is going to look like in 5 years time.

OP posts:
sorrento56 · 28/08/2010 14:32

I have just heard on the news that NHS direct is going to be axed and a cheaper service is going to be put in its place. Going on our experience I have found NHS direct to be useless many more times than not so a change might be a good thing.

WetAugust · 28/08/2010 14:34

Good.

It was useless.

I rang them in such severe pain that I could barely speak.

Was told to take a paracetamol.

Transpired I had a badly inflamed gall bladder that should have called for emergency treatment.

ilovemydogandMrObama · 28/08/2010 14:35

I remember wmmc. It turned out to be a chest infection or asthma?

lal123 · 28/08/2010 14:35

Time traveller - the NHS Direct sats re savings to NHS assume that everyone who is given advice over the phone would otherwise have attended their GP/A&E - this is not the case. ALthough many people will call who have urgent medical needs lots of people's problems would have resolved themselves etc etc. If you asked A&E depts/GPs they certainly haven't seen any decrease in workload

Maybe MN should offer to replace NHS Direct, all it would need would be a topic thread....

Also - I think that because NHS Direct/NHS24 have gotten so risk averse the need for qualified nurses is questionable. Much of the clinical decision making has been taken out of clinicians hands and replaced by various logarithms etc which all tend to end up with either "Go see your GP tomorrow" or "Go to A&E if you're worried"

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 28/08/2010 14:37

WMMC - yes that was the same one I think.

BeenBeta · 28/08/2010 14:48

My experience of NHS Direct has been mixed.

On one occassion where DS1 had an extremly high temeprature the NHS Direct person organised for a local paediatric consultant to call me and h gave very good advice. On another occasison we had accidentally given DS2 two does of Ibruprofen and just wanted reassurance and they were able to tell me the guidance on overdose levels which were far far higher than than the dose we had given. Apparently a very common reason for people to call NHS Direct. On another occassion they were really useless and just said go to A&E if you are worried. It seems to depend on the personnel.

I suspect the problem is that in our litigious culture it simply is not possible to give sensible advice over the phone without facing huge legal liability.

loshad - I agree with you and the Guardian bashing of the coalition. However, without NHS Direct is your GP husband and his surgery colleagues really willing to offer proper 24 hour GP cover (not just locums)? I dont think it is likely many GPs are either willing or able to offer that level of cover and so and therefore A&E will likely be overwhelmed again.

Original poster
thetraveller · 28/08/2010 16:45

ProfessorLayton - I'm certainly not arguing that NHS Direct is perfect. My own experience has been very good, but I'm sorry to hear that others have had a bad experience. My main fear is that the government plans to replace it with a service which will be even worse, not better.

OP posts:
ragged · 28/08/2010 17:14

NHS-Direct has been only good for us, for everyone I know IRL. I'll be sad to see it go. :(

elliemental · 28/08/2010 17:23

I have to say I have never found NHS Direct helpful. Given I only ring if I REALLY don't know what to do (having been on MN< Googled, used my common sense etc) it i very frustrating to be told for EVERYTHING ''go to A&E if you're worried.'' Hmm

The one time they didn't advise me to go to A&E, we went anyway because we were really worried (it was 4.30am) - turned out my child had meningitis and was hospitalised for 11 days...

zapostrophe · 28/08/2010 17:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

ilovemydogandMrObama · 28/08/2010 17:44

Could someone explain to me slowly how they are going to scrap NHS Direct, but replace it with a non emergency number? How is this not merely a rebrand of NHS Direct?

Use small words please

SmellyPirateHooker · 28/08/2010 17:51

I think NHS Direct is pretty useless, surely we should all be able to make our own decision on whether or not we need GP/A&E/can self medicate/wait until tomorrow etc? We survived for years and years without NHS Direct and we haven't been wiped out so I suspect the money save could be better spent elsewhere.

I don't know if everyone has this but here we have Thamesdoc which has a hideous website but provides excellent out of hours service. You can speak to a GP, attend the clinic 6am - 11pm at local hospital, arrange a home visit outside of those times or they will refer to A&E if necessary. I never need to use NHS Direct (although I have done in the past) as this service is so much better.

HecateQueenOfWitches · 28/08/2010 18:04

Good. Glad they are being axed.

brring brring brring brrring

hello, I have a problem

Phone an ambulance / make a gp appt

ok, I've cut out the Q&A session and the 3 hour wait for someone to call me back. But that's about it.

You tell them what's wrong with you, they tell you to go to the hospital or see your gp.

Hmm

What a bloody waste of money!

LilyBolero · 28/08/2010 18:15

well I've found it useful every time we've used it, particularly to reassure me that I was following the appropriate course of action. And once that was getting a non-blue-light ambulance for ds2 when he was tiny - I'm not sure HOW you would go about doing that without nhs direct. So i will be sorry to see it go.

purits · 28/08/2010 18:32

"I've only ever had useless advice from them so I for one am not sorry to see them go."

Seconded. Mind you I haven't used them in quite a while - partly because I have no confidence in them.
I sometimes phoned them when the DC were little. I just wanted a reassuring "Don't worry, they will be fine overnight. You can safely wait until the morning to see the doctor." So I would phone up with a (hopefully) trivial high temperature or some such and have to go through a tickbox checklist of "is he conscious, is he breathing, has he turned blue?" and other such irrelevancies. They always sounded like trained monkeys, not human beings with healthcare expertese. It was obvious that the important thing was their system, not the health of my child.

Bartok · 29/08/2010 00:38

My experiences of NHS Direct have been uniformly positive, so I'll be sad to see it go.

On the other hand, my experience of GPs (with a couple of shining exceptions) has been overwhelmingly negative. Overpaid buffoons for the most part.

ragged · 29/08/2010 08:30

I've never had to wait more than 60 min. to be rung back. I'm not really sure what people expect, if they "always just" send you to GP/A&E it sounds like they are doing their job in recognising the limits of over-the-telephone diagnosis. If you went to GP/hospital and it was always a complete waste of time for you to be there, fair enough, but nobody on this thread seems to be posting that.

I know someone who works for NHS-Direct and she is the most scarily efficient quick-witted thinking person I think I've ever met. Very highly trained.

quinne · 29/08/2010 08:36

what NHS direct is good for is getting you a GP appointment at short notice when the GP's receptionists have previously refused.

NinthWave · 29/08/2010 09:52

How convenient that NHS direct is being axed at the same time as the A&E maximum waiting time target is being 'relaxed'...

GothAnneGeddes · 29/08/2010 11:14

Also, how convenient that the BMA are so eager to stab nurses in the back. Hmm

anastaisia · 29/08/2010 11:49

This is not a Coalition idea

johnhemming · 29/08/2010 17:04

It is quite amusing to see Labour launch a petition against something that they had not only piloted whilst in government by also announced publicly and supported publicly.

beammeupscotty · 30/08/2010 10:46

I have started a thread regarding the NHSD petition. NOT to keep NHSD in its present form but to have a DEBATE out in the open. As it stands 111 will be brought in without the public knowing what the pros and cons are. I for one want to know what we are getting to replace it.

If 27,000 people call daily and 66% self care at the end of the assessment, where will those 66% go - GP or A&E probably, as the assessors will only have a short training period. I for one would have no confidence in them and would make an appointment to see someone medically trained. We will need thousands more doctors. Is this why the GMC have always been so opposed to NHSD?

ItalyLovingMummy · 30/08/2010 11:02

Thanks Hoochie, I have signed the petition.

SayItWithWine · 31/08/2010 12:15

This makes interesting reading, I will also sign the petition Smile