Who is nhs direct

NHS online is classed as a medical device. As part of gaining that classification, instructions for use, safety and technical information about the product are published. Read more about the product and how it meets the requirements. Find out more about how and when people should use Discover other digital services and initiatives that are empowering people to take control of their health and care.

Find out more about the ways in which we are developing digital urgent and emergency care. Last edited: 1 October pm. Skip to main content. Internet explorer is no longer supported We have detected that you are using Internet Explorer to visit this website. Get help using NHS online. The decision was left to the patient on what to do, having been equipped with the advice. In , if ankle fracture could not be ruled out, and a minor injuries unit was considered by the software to be the appropriate level of care for the patient, the operator would have the facility to direct the caller to the nearest suitable unit.

For most of its lifetime NHS Direct did not have this facility: this certainly marks and improvement. Thereafter, a nurse would take a more complete history of the event. This is rather different from NHS A caller to NHS may have their enquiry dealt with entirely by a highly trained, but non-clinical, call handler using NHS Pathways software. That is not to say that there is no role for clinicians in the service.

At present, in-house clinicians remain the backstop for difficult or complex cases, as well as in delivering self-care advice and negotiating outcomes if the caller disagrees.

Unfortunately such a model may not take advantage of the experience and understanding of experienced clinicians. There is a growing body of evidence that such interventions have a positive impact in reducing costly face to face contacts with clinicians in both primary and secondary care.

However, the current model of clinician validation should be considered. Third party histories are notoriously unreliable, even when recorded by a trained member of staff. Things change, and situations evolve. Such skills in listening and accurately recording information are currently used in primary care settings, both in and out of hours.

The evidence is clear that the input of highly trained clinicians in telephone triage positively impacts on both patient outcomes and reducing burden to health services. As the health service considers what it wants NHS to do, a greater role for clinician input seems an obvious choice. The means to communicate patient information between GP practices, their local GP out of hours and on to the local service already exists.

This is usually done by means of a rather clunky and outdated method of paper based communications known as special patient notes, which were primarily developed to manage end of life care, but have expanded to include some other chronic disease care plans.

The proportion of calls triaged that received any form of clinical input in January was The corresponding figure for January was Of calls triaged in January , Swipe to read more. Author: Politics. What is NHS ?

The service also operates a website: www. Link copy successful. Next article.