NHS Direct - An interesting idea pushed out too fast with inadequate consultation and debate
- Lives Saved - Early Success For Nhs Direct.
Department
of Health Press Release 08/187 Friday 15th May 1998 Embargo 00:01 Sunday
17th May 1998
- Doctors yesterday voiced concern over the future of the traditional GP practice after Tony Blair announced the creation of 20 experimental walk-in centres where people will be able to get free NHS care.
The Prime Minister also unveiled pilot schemes to extend the successful NHS Direct system, offering further ways of accessing health care without using a GP.
Mr Blair presented the initiatives as ways of bringing the NHS up to the pace of modern life. But doctors' leaders warned that the GP practice must not be undermined and that continuity of patient care must be preserved.
Judy Gilley, joint deputy chairwoman of the British Medical Association's GPs' committee, said: 'The practice is the glue which has held the NHS together for 50 years.' Guardian 14 April 1999.
- Representatives of Britain's 30,000 GPs attacked the way ministers are rushing in NHS Direct, the telephone advice service for patients, and are introducing walk-in clinics. Guardian 25 June 1999.
- www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk is an online version of the telephone service NHS Direct, which was set up in April and already receives almost 100,000 calls a month. Observer 5 December 1999.
- Cybermedicine came to the UK yesterday, with the launch by the prime minister of an official NHS website to answer patient queries, thin the crowds in the waiting room and - within a couple of years - offer online consultations with a nurse or doctor. Guardian 8 December 1999.
- If the aim of NHS Direct is in part to neutralise the threat to NHS funding posed by the hypochondriac, a feeling in my water (possibly a renal complaint of course, but equally possibly a divination) suggests the result may be the reverse. Guardian 8 December 1999.
- Alan Milburn, the most unpopular Minister, says that he is still upbeat about his ability to save the NHS. Guardian 23 January 2000.
- Sweeping changes to the ambulance service will be announced today as the government intensifies its efforts to improve one of the most hard-pressed areas of the NHS, which faced intense pressure during the recent winter fuel crisis.
Operators will be allowed to refer 999 callers with minor illnesses to the government's flagship NHS Direct telephone service, which is staffed by nurses and gives medical advice to callers, under plans unveiled by the health minister Gisela Stuart. Guardian 20 March 2000.
- Billions are to be pumped into the NHS while it is reformed into a modern, consumer-led service, leaving the old patrician ways behind. Old demarcations are said to be outmoded and inefficient and unnecessary. Do they include the need for professionals to stand between the public and medical knowledge? Guardian 24 March 2000.
- The British Medical Association yesterday attacked ministers for diverting scarce health resources into headline-grabbing "consumerist" initiatives, such as NHS Direct, without offering any evidence that they benefited patients or reduced either the workload of GPs or of hospitals. Guardian 27 June 2000.
- NHS Direct, the telephone helpline hailed by the government as the way forward for the health service, could be risking lives because of shortcomings in the way calls are handled, it was claimed yesterday. Guardian, 8 August 2000.
- The government has launched public access internet kiosks offering NHS health information online.
The touch-screen terminals will be linked to the NHS Direct website - the online version of the nurse staffed helpline service.
People without access to the internet will be able to use the kiosks to get basic health information and advice. Guardian, 18 October 2000.
- Helplines for health. Guardian letter from Prof Julian Tudor Hart, University of Glamorgan, 23 November 2000.
- The government today launched public access internet kiosks offering NHS health information online.
The touch-screen terminals will be linked to the NHS Direct website - the online version of the nurse staffed helpline service. People without access to the internet will be able to use the kiosks to get basic health information and advice. Guardian 18 October 2000.
- Health ministers want to establish a single national telephone number to summon out-of-hours help from a GP, instead of local services of variable speed and quality. Guardian 31 October 2000.
- The government's NHS Direct telephone service will be formally rolled out across England today as ministers step up their efforts to ensure that it becomes the main "gateway" to the health service.
Alan Milburn, the health secretary, will announce that the service, which is staffed by nurses, will handle 5m calls a year by 2004, turning it into the national telephone line for the NHS.
All patients, except those in need of emergency care, will be encouraged to telephone NHS Direct as a first step in their treatment.
Ministers hope that this will improve efficiency by reducing the number of telephone calls to local GPs or to accident and emergency units.
NHS Direct staff make an assessment of a patient's need before offering advice which can range from encouragement to stay in bed for minor conditions to making an appointment to see a GP or to go to hospital. Under the new plans, NHS Direct will handle initial telephone inquiries on behalf of GPs' surgeries.
Ministers are bracing themselves for a confrontation with GPs who are said to be nervous about NHS Direct taking on their work. Guardian 20 November 2000.
- A woman who rang NHS Direct, the telephone helpline, when her
80-year-old mother experienced severed back pain was told to go
private, it has emerged.
SocietyGuardian.co.uk
15 June 2001
- NHS Direct, the health service's telephone advice line, had its busiest
day ever on Boxing Day as the nation reacted to the seasonal festivities
with record complaints of vomiting, fever, coughs and diarrhoea. Guardian
Society
Friday December 28, 2001
The government promised yesterday to investigate an inquest's finding that
a baby girl died of meningitis after being misdiagnosed by NHS Direct.
Guardian
Society Friday February 15, 2002
Doctors would no
longer be the first port of call for sick patients in an innovative plan
proposed today by the British Medical Association. It suggests nurse
practitioners should initially assess patients and guide them to the
relevant services. Guardian
Thursday February 28, 2002
Plan for NHS Direct to handle non-urgent 999 calls. Patrick Butler Guardian
Society Friday March 22, 2002
Trivial 999 calls to be diverted to helpline. John Carvel, social
affairs editor Guardian
Friday May 24, 2002
Some strange or worrying 999 calls. Guardian
Friday June 28, 2002
People who
persistently abuse the 999 ambulance service by making hoax or inappropriate
calls will face prosecution under a new "zero tolerance" crackdown
announced by ministers today. Patrick Butler Society
Friday June 28, 2002
The NHS Direct 24-hour helpline is in danger of becoming overstretched,
the health inspectorate says in a report published today. John Carvel, social
affairs editor
Monday November 10, 2003 The Guardian
Calls to NHS helpline reach record high. John Carvel, social affairs
editor
Monday December 29, 2003 The Guardian
Gateway to patient care. Once just a popular help line, NHS Direct is
about to shake things up with call centres, digital TV - and its own funding,
says Lyn Whitfield.
Wednesday March 24, 2004 The Guardian
NHS Direct, the health service's telephone advice line, had its busiest
day to date on Monday as the country struggled to cope with the extended
Christmas break. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Wednesday
December 29, 2004 The Guardian
NHS Direct, the health service's telephone advice line, took a record
number of calls over the four-day Christmas weekend, as Britain coughed and
sneezed its way through the festivities. Figures compiled for the Guardian
from the service's national database showed the volume of calls between
December 24 and December 27 was 5% up on last year. Traffic on the NHS Direct
online website increased even faster, with total visits up by 32% on the same
period of 2004. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Thursday December 29, 2005 The Guardian
Thousands more jobs
may go as crisis hits NHS Direct. Hundreds of jobs could be lost at NHS
Direct, the telephone and online service, as it becomes the latest arm of the
health service to report a deficit. Cost-cutting proposals include an
immediate recruitment freeze, compulsory redundancies and the closure of some
call centres. Meanwhile the RCN has warned that there could be 5,000 more job
losses in the West Midlands alone, on top of the 1,000 jobs cut by the
University Hospital of North Staffordshire, because of "huge problems" at
hospitals such as Good Hope and City Hospital in Birmingham, New Cross in
Wolverhampton, and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 18 March 2006
1,000 NHS
Direct jobs to be axed in face of £20m
deficit. Secret
plans have been drawn up to cut jobs at NHS Direct by a third. The loss of
more than 1,000 workers, including nurses, will raise questions over the
future of the service. Board members have been asked to consider scrapping
almost 1,250 of 3,746 jobs, replacing nurses with unqualified staff and
closing eight call centres. The proposal is aimed at reducing a potential
deficit of £20m and making NHS Direct more competitive with private firms.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Telegraph 3 April 2006
NHS Direct to
become foundation trust. NHS Direct said
becoming a foundation trust
will provide it with incentives to develop new services that could be
commissioned by the NHS or private health providers. Foundation status will
follow soon after NHS Direct becomes a trust in April 2007.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Independent Nurse 8 May 2006
NHS Direct, the nurse-led health helpline, will
today axe more than 1,000 staff in a comprehensive restructuring of branches
and business objectives, the Guardian has learned. Proposals will be presented
for consultation with staff unions to close 12 call centres across England and
shed more than a quarter of the workforce to avert a forecast £15m deficit for
2006-07. The move follows an announcement yesterday by Nottingham University
Hospitals NHS trust that it plans to shed 1,200 jobs to avoid a deficit of
£60m - caused partly by a new payment-by-results system introduced last month.
The Nottingham cuts - like most of the 13,000 hospital job losses over the
past few months - will be achieved largely through staff turnover, with few
compulsory redundancies. But NHS Direct said up to 114 of its nurses may be
sacked, along with managers and administrators. NHS Direct was founded in 1997
to provide a 24-hour telephone helpline advising patients on how to deal with
symptoms and where to go in an emergency. It handles about 6.5m calls a year
and its website attracts 1m visits a month. This side of its business is
likely to grow, but a report to staff today admits the organisation has failed
to meet targets for expanding into new areas. It expected to get the lion's
share of contracts for call centres for patients wanting to see a GP outside
working hours - but got only 20% of the business. It also runs an appointments
line to support the choose and book system that enables patients to fix an
outpatient appointment at a convenient time at the hospital of their choice.
Delays in installing necessary IT equipment in hospitals and GP surgeries
slowed this income stream. It says it can no longer afford to run many of the
smaller call centres. The proposals call for the closure of centres in
Doncaster,
Scunthorpe, York,
Chester,
Bolton,
Preston, Chorley,
Southport,
Cambridge,
Croydon,
Brighton and
Kensington, London. They will shut over the next 18 months and staff will
be made redundant unless they can be redeployed. Eighteen call centres will be
expanded.John Carvel, social affairs editor
Tuesday May 16, 2006 The Guardian
Fears for NHS
call centres. NHS Direct faces strike action
over fears the service
will be axed. The 24-hour helpline has already been hit with hundreds of
job losses, with a fifth of its call centres facing closure. Now, the Royal
College of Nursing and Unison are warning morale is at "rock bottom" and staff
want an all-out strike. The axe is hanging over 573 posts with 12 call centres
due to close and a further 19 "under review". Staff fear this will put
patients at risk.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Mirror
9 August 2006
NHS Direct cuts
'to hit waiting times'. Patients will face longer waiting times as 12
NHS Direct sites close and 196 jobs go, unions
warned yesterday. Unison spokeswoman Karen Jennings said: "The NHS Direct
helpline provides an invaluable 24/
7 service to patients and relatives worried about their health or their
children and loved ones. Staff can take up to 25,000 calls a day and cutting
staff will put pressure on those left behind. It will also increase the burden
on GP surgeries and A& E
departments, particularly at night, weekends and bank holidays." The twelve
sites will close by April. Up to 600
jobs were expected to be
axed but that has been cut by a third. The future of five centres, at
Leicester, Liverpool, St Helens, Caterham and Norwich, is under review.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Mirror
5 October 2006
NHS Direct
complaints rise by 50%. Complaints about helpline NHS Direct have risen by
50% since the end of 2006 as it struggles to answer calls and offer speedy
advice, its figures show. The Patients Association said people were now
turning to them for help. But NHS Direct said the situation was improving
after a major reorganisation. Hundreds of posts were lost and 12 of its 50
centres closed last year as the service tried to make cuts as part of the
NHS-wide push for savings. Performance data from NHS Direct showed that in
recent months the service had struggled to answer calls or deal with
non-urgent cases quickly enough under its targets agreed with government. A
spokeswoman for the Patients Association said: "We are getting a lot of people
ringing our helpline who are unhappy with the help they have got from NHS
Direct. It is scandalous that this service is not doing what it should. Some
are even saying NHS Direct has referred them to us. We are a charity, we
should not be picking up the pieces for a publicly-funded service."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
30 April 2007
NHS Direct 'A Strain On System'.
NHS Direct is referring on too many patients to GPs and emergency services,
putting strain on the system, doctors and ambulance crews say. They claim to
get urgent referrals when patients have minor problems, such as sprains and
high temperatures, and have called for an inquiry into the service.
Care & Health 14 June 2007
NHS direct
calls up new ad campaign. NHS Direct is launching its first advertising
campaign today since it appointed Abbott Mead Vickers to its creative and
media accounts last month. The push, worth £2m, starts with local and regional
radio and will be followed by print advertising in October and November. Print
advertising will be placed in female weekly magazines in an attempt to target
women aged 22 to 45 with children. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public of Mad.co.uk
24 September 2007
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