BMJ 1998;317:1026-1027 ( 17 October )

Editorials

NHS Direct

Evaluate, integrate, or bust...

General practice p 1054

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The gradual introduction of NHS Direct, the 24 hour health telephone helpline due to be a national service by the year 2000, is a small but important symbol of the modern NHS.1 It has been designed to respond to the fastest growing influences on service industries: consumerism and technology.2 NHS Direct aims initially to do for the health service what cash machines have done for banking: to offer a more accessible, convenient, and interactive gateway. Its longer term aim should be to help the NHS change its predominant ethos from paternalism to partnership.3

This method of delivering services is not particular to health care. Telephone services in other sectors have been one of the fastest growth areas in employment in the United Kingdom. However, the speed of planned growth of NHS Direct (pilots launched March 1998, more bids invited May 1998 and announced in July 1998, 19 million people (40% of England's population) to . . . [Full text of this article]
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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Boardman, J., Steele, C. (2002). NHS Direct -- a telephone helpline for England and Wales. Psychiatr. Bull. 26: 42-44 [Full text]  
  • Carr, E. C.J., Worth, A. (2001). The use of the telephone interview for research. Journal of Research in Nursing 6: 511-524 [Abstract]  
  • McCabe, C., McDowell, J., Cushnaghan, J., Butts, S., Hewlett, S., Stafford, S., O'Hea, J., Breslin, A. (2000). Rheumatology telephone helplines: an activity analysis. Rheumatology (Oxford) 39: 1390-1395 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Eysenbach, G. (2000). Recent advances: Consumer health informatics. BMJ 320: 1713-1716 [Full text]  
  • Florin, D., Rosen, R. (1999). Evaluating NHS Direct. BMJ 319: 5-6 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

NHS Direct should provide a national telephone interpreter service
Peter Leman
bmj.com, 23 Oct 1998 [Full text]
Untitled
Nina Booth-Clibborn
bmj.com, 27 Nov 1998 [Full text]
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