NHS Direct web services overtook the telephone service during the festive period
NHS Direct’s telephone and online services were used over 830,000 times during the festive period (20 December 2010 to 3 January 2011) and over half of those contacts were via NHS Direct’s online health and symptom checkers.
Over 397,000 telephone calls were made to NHS Direct in this period.* However the number of telephone assessments completed was less than in 2009/10 (around 10 percent lower). This is offset by an increase in the use of the online health and symptom checkers. This year NHS Direct had recorded self-care advice about colds and flu available via the initial welcome message, which meant that many people were able to obtain advice on how to look after themselves at home without having to speak to someone, leaving nurse advisors available to spend more time on longer calls with people who had more urgent problems.
NHS Direct online health and symptom checkers were used over 433,000 times, with patients receiving the same advice online as they do over the telephone. Those who needed further advice were able to ‘click’ to receive a call back from an NHS Direct nurse advisor (click-to-call back).
The busiest days on the telephone were the two bank holidays - Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December 2010 - when over 85,000 calls were made. 58,000 of these calls were to the 0845 helpline. On 27 December the service received double the calls that were forecast.
Throughout the festive period NHS Direct met its standards for responding to patients assessed as having the most urgent needs in the target time of 20 minutes.
Over the two bank holidays (Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December 2010) NHS Direct’s health and symptom checkers were used over 74,000 times and resulted in nearly 5,000 click-to-call backs. 45 per cent of people using the health and symptom checkers over these bank holidays were assessing colds and flu symptoms.
Nick Chapman, NHS Direct Chief Executive, said:
“This has been a very challenging Christmas period for us, with unprecedented demand for our services the week leading up to Christmas, during the severe weather, and continuing throughout the Christmas and New Year period. Our staff have worked tremendously hard to help as many patients as possible, and even at our busiest times we continued to deal with patients assessed as having the most urgent needs within 20 minutes, and over 50 per cent of callers received self-care advice allowing them to treat themselves at home.”
* This includes all calls made to the 0845 helpline and other commissioned services that NHS Direct provides for local health organisations, such as GP out of hours and support for ambulance services to handle their Category C calls. Figures include calls that were generated by the click-to-call back function on the health and symptom checkers in addition to the online assessment.
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