‘Challenging’ Christmas for NHS Direct

NHS Direct’s web services overtook its phone services over the festive period, new figures show.

Performance statistics published by NHS Direct show its combined telephone and online services were used over 830,000 times from December 20 to January 3, with half of those contacts via NHS Direct’s online health and symptom checkers.

It recorded over 397,000 telephone calls – with phone assessments down 10% on 2009/10, offset by an increase in online checks.

There was also recorded self-care advice about colds and flu on the initial welcome message, leaving nurse advisors available for people with more urgent problems.

Online patients received the same advice as they would over the telephone, NHS Direct said, and could ‘click’ for a call back from a nurse advisor.

The busiest days on the telephone were the two bank holidays straight after Christmas - on December 27, the service received double the calls that were forecast.

NHS Direct met its standards for responding to patients assessed as having the most urgent needs in the target time of 20 minutes.