NHS Direct’s contract to provide The Appointments Line is extended
NHS Direct’s contract to deliver The Appointments Line service (TAL), part of the Government’s Choose and Book system, has been extended by a further year, up to December 2011.
NHS Direct has been commissioned to provide TAL since 2007. We employ over 200 frontline staff to deliver the service, based at our contact centres in Milton Keynes, Chatham and Hedge End. In 2009/10, TAL handled more than 3.8 million calls and achieves very high levels of patient satisfaction.
Through Choose and Book, the electronic hospital appointments booking system, people can make their first outpatient appointment online, at their GP practice, or by calling TAL. Patients who need to use TAL are given a password and booking reference number by their GP practice to quote when calling the service. TAL is able to book and re-book appointments and provide patients with an update regarding their booking. TAL can also provide patients with information about the hospitals and clinics available to them from the Directory of Services and NHS Choices
TAL offers a confidential interpretation service in many languages for non-English speakers and a textphone service is also available for the deaf and hard of hearing.
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