NHS Direct and 111
There’s been quite a lot of misrepresentation about NHS Direct’s future role. The Health Secretary has made it clear that NHS Direct as an organisation is not being closed down, nor was this ever the Government’s intention. After the initial media coverage over the bank holiday, you should have received a letter from Nick Chapman, explaining our position, but we wanted to take this opportunity to provide an update.
The Government has confirmed that the 0845 4647 telephone service we are commissioned to provide will be replaced by the new NHS 111 service when it rolled out nationally. This is no surprise as it was included in the White Paper in June 2010. 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 pilots that are testing different ways of delivering the NHS 111 service. 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 4647 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.
