NHS Choices and NHS Direct

NHS Direct

Contact NHS Direct when you are ill or injured and not sure what to do next, or if you have any questions about conditions, treatment or local health services. You can call NHS Direct 24 hours a day, every day of the year and speak to an experienced nurse to get expert, confidential advice.

Call 0845 46 47 or visit: www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk

A new way to contact NHS Direct

NHS Direct has developed an online initial assessment tool making it quicker and easier for patients to contact the service over the busy winter months.

Patients can bypass an initial telephone assessment by using the new online tool at www.nhs.uk/nhsdirect to assess their symptoms and get advice.

The online assessment provides information and advice to patients on all symptoms and conditions. Where appropriate, it will give people advice on how they can treat their symptoms at home, or if necessary direct them to another health service. For those people who need further advice they can click to get a call-back from an NHS Direct nurse advisor.

The new tool mirrors the clinical assessment criteria currently used over the telephone by our health advisors. People using the online tool will be asked similar questions to those asked over the telephone, and the outcomes, based on the answers to the questions, will be the same.

NHS Choices

For internet information on all aspects of health care, go to www.nhs.uk. It allows you to check your symptoms, check hundreds of conditions and treatments and find telephone numbers and addresses for most NHS organisations, including hospitals and GPs.