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

[thetraveller]

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.

I have signed the petition.

FWIW, my mum (40 at the time) rang up with a pain in her right arm and feeling a bit 'funny'. After a few questions, they rang an ambulance for her as it turned out she was having a heart attack.
Now my mum is a first-aid trained, intelligent woman, but always assumed left arm pain etc.. meant heart attack. She would never have gone to A&E. God knows what would have happened.

I have had a few iffy dealings with them, but have found it very useful. Ringing up when DC have swallowed some thing or other (sudacreme for eg!) They have found late-night chemists when I've been on holiday and DD was bitten by an insect, I rang when I was miscarrying and they helped and supported then.

Just another thing the tories are wanting gone that helps the poor, vulnerable and children.

One thing I would feel uncomfortable about just employing call centre workers is privacy. When NHS24 call me back, the doctor or nurse has access to my medical records (the call handler does not but passes on my info to make it easier for the nurse to look up before calling me back). I think the combination of NHS24 and computerised records is fantastic and efficient. I do not like either the idea that anyone with just 60hrs training can look people up (no liability about job loss in the same way a nurse or dr would) nor being treated blind because they cannot look.

I am on a cocktail of medications and sometimes suffer from recurring infections, it is great to get the correct antibiotic from a local pharmacy without pestering the GP or at weekends. The complaints about waiting 40mins in a life threatening situation are surely irrelevant, that is what 999 is for.

I didn't think they had your medical records when you phone?

I always call the out of hours doc service in preference

(letter from Chief Exec NHS direct)

Dear Colleague,

I expect that you will have read or seen the media coverage over the Bank holiday weekend about NHS Direct. I wanted to write promptly to you to correct any misleading impression that this may have created that NHS Direct as an organisation is being closed down. This is not what the Government has said, nor is it their intention.

The Government has confirmed that the 0845 46 47 telephone service we are commissioned to provide will be phased out as the new NHS 111 service is developed and rolled out nationally. This is no surprise as it was included in the White Paper in June. We are fully supportive of the new 111 telephone number, and the plan for the 111 service to be thoroughly integrated into local health communities with a more integrated urgent and out of hours response. We have been working with the Department of Health on the 111 programme since 2009, and we are working with the Department and local health communities involved in all three of the ?Pathfinder? schemes that are testing how 111 can work best. The new service will build on and develop the service that NHS Direct currently provides. Decisions on how the new NHS 111 service will be commissioned and how it will be provided in the future have yet to be made.

In the meantime, NHS Direct will continue with the business of offering advice and guidance to patients, via the ?core? 0845 46 47 service, and providing other local and national telephone and web-based services on behalf of our commissioners. There will be no disruption to any of these services, and we will ensure above all that there is continuity of service to patients.

You may want to use this message in any onward communications you have with your own stakeholders, and of course, I am more than happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Best wishes

Nick Chapman
Chief Executive

In some areas, NHS Direct and the out of hours service are the same. They don't have access to your GP's medical records generally but do have details of previous contact with you.

We?ve found the service really useful with our daughter ? especially on those nights when she woke up with one fever/bug or another and you wanted to get quick and professional medical advice. I do feel NHS Direct takes a lot of pressure off local hospital A&E departments and out of hours Doctor services. An online petition has been set up at this address and if you feel NHS Direct is worth saving, please do sign it. It?s at www.savenhsdirect.co.uk/ . Also do spread the word around your friends and family. If the campaign gets 100,000 signatures on the petition it will be discussed in Parliament and there?s a chance NHS Direct could be saved.

There is an argument for rationalising out of hours access to the NHS. At the moment you have GP OOH (sometimes answered by NHS Direct) A&E, NHS D, walk in centres, minor injury units and a host of other services, many with different operating hours. Very confusing. I once rang NHS D out of hours and was told to call my GP service who put me through to ruddy NHS Direct to triage the call and decide who should deal with me!

edam, I think the 111 service is intended to rationalise some of this although you've still got your walk-in v. phone-up access channels.

From a friend of mine who works for NHSD, I understand that a lot of weekend calls are from patients who have messed up repeat prescriptions. The last two times I've used them myself (for dh) have been for the same reason - once the pharmacy just brought the wrong quantity and we didn't realise til they'd closed for the weekend, once dh forgot to re-order the repeats. It would be very good to be able to avoid the 'is the patient still breathing' 10 minute questionnaire in such circumstances, and just have a 'press 1 if you are a numpty and need a prescription to cover you til Monday' option. I would still expect the call to be triaged, and in my case, given I've been asking for some pretty heavy-duty medication, given a grilling by a GP before handing over the prescription (they can normally just fax it over to a pharmacy although we have had to go to the out of hours centre for controlled drug prescriptions - understandable).

I'm surprised the apparent news that NHSD isn't being scrapped hasn't been more widely reported. It's on their website.