The role of NHS Direct in NHS 111
North East
This was the first service to go live and was launched by Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health on Monday 23rd August 2010. This is being led by NHS County Durham and Darlington. NHS Direct’s role in this pilot is to provide health information support.
Call handling and nurse assessment is being delivered by the North East Ambulance Service. If a call requires health information or medicines advice it is warm transferred to an NHS Direct health information advisor who will then provide appropriate information.
East Midlands
There are two 111 pilots in East Midlands - NHS Nottingham City and NHS Lincolnshire.
Call handling and nurse assessment will be delivered by NHS Direct for all 111 calls from Nottingham City and Lincolnshire.
NHS Direct health advisors will answer the calls and triage them using NHS Pathways. The calls will then be passed to the relevant service as identified. This may include NHS Direct nurse advice or health information but will also include transferring to midwifery services, community matrons etc using the local Directories of Services.
East of England
NHS Direct will manage and deliver the 111 pilot for NHS Luton. NHS Direct is providing a full service – call handling, nurse assessment, health information and booking appointments for patients during the out of hours period.
As we move forward we expect that NHS Direct as an organisation will have an ongoing role along with other providers, in helping to deliver the NHS 111 service.
