Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
NHS Direct
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Health and symptomatic advice== NHS Direct's core service was the provision of health advice to the public through the national telephone service or through digital channels including the website. ===Telephone service=== In England and Wales, the NHS Direct telephone service was available on '''0845 46 47''' and was run by a specially trained team of information handlers and healthcare professionals, including nurses and dental nurses. The service was equipped to deal with a huge range of health enquiries, from symptomatic queries that require assessment and treatment, to requests for local healthcare services and healthy living advice. Every person that called NHS Direct feeling unwell was assessed to establish the severity of their symptoms, so as to re-route any urgent or life-threatening situations to the [[Emergency medical services|emergency services]] as quickly as possible.<ref name=":0" /> Other symptomatic callers were able to speak to a nurse practitioner, who asked about their condition in order to recommend the best course of action. This could be giving advice about treating the problem at home, suggesting a visit to a pharmacist, or advising an appointment with their [[General practitioner|GP]], which, if in the out of hours period (when the [[General practitioner|GP]] surgeries are closed), could possibly be arranged over the phone.<ref name=":0" /> As many callers were advised to look after their symptoms at home without seeing their [[General practitioner|GP]], the NHS Direct telephone service reduced the demand on [[National Health Service (England)|NHS]] resources and helped to avoid unnecessary trips to the doctor, dentist and [[Emergency department|accident and emergency department]]. The NHS Direct telephone service also provided a confidential interpreter service in many different languages, which could be accessed by stating the language required when the call was answered. For those who are deaf or hard of hearing, there was a textphone service available on '''0845 606 4647'''. ===Website=== The NHS Direct website had a variety of symptom checkers, based on the same system used on the telephone service and could either give self care advice or direct a user to another NHS service. For more complex queries, the symptom checkers allowed the user to receive a call back from a nurse or to take part in a webchat for further information and help.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=2013-10-24|title=NHS Direct to close down next year|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/health-24651402|access-date=2021-10-26}}</ref> All NHS Direct health advice and information on the website passed through a rigorous clinical check by medical professionals before it was published.<ref name="nhscsp">{{cite web |publisher=NHS Direct |url=http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/article.aspx?SectionId=5&Name=FreedomOfInformationDocuments#policiesandproceduresrelatingtotheconductofbusinessandtheprovisionofnhsdirectservices |title=Clinical Supervision Policy |url-status=dead |archivedate=2009-03-06 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090306075721/http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/article.aspx?SectionId=5&Name=FreedomOfInformationDocuments#policiesandproceduresrelatingtotheconductofbusinessandtheprovisionofnhsdirectservices }}</ref> Non-urgent health queries could be submitted to the NHS Direct online enquiry service and the website also offered a confidential webchat service for those needing advice about unprotected sex or emergency contraception. ===Mobile services=== NHS Direct offered its full range of symptom checkers optimised for mobile devices on its [https://web.archive.org/web/20110609050516/http://mobile.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/ mobile website] and also launched stand alone 'apps' for [[iPhone]] and [[Android (operating system)|Android]] smart phones, both available in the normal app stores.<ref name="nhsApp">{{cite web |publisher=NHS Direct |title=NHS Direct mobile app |url=http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/en/About/MobileApps |url-status=dead |archivedate=2011-06-06 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606043042/http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/en/About/MobileApps }}</ref><ref name="plint40194">{{cite news |publisher=Pocket Lint |title=App of the day:NHS Direct |url=http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/40194/nhs-direct-android-app-of-the-day |url-status=live |archivedate=2011-05-30 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110530000755/http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/40194/nhs-direct-android-app-of-the-day }}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)