Target communities show poor awareness of NHS Direct

EDITOR—Munro et al found that NHS Direct had no discernible effect on the use of emergency ambulances or accident and emergency departments in the first year of operation, leading to a suggestion that this service may not prove cost effective.1 The study is limited by an assumption that the population studied had complete awareness of the service. Six months after the introduction of East Midlands NHS Direct we had anecdotal evidence to suggest that many patients attending our accident and emergency department were unaware of the telephone advisory service.

Consequently we undertook a survey of 300 consecutive ambulatory patients (or their parents) who referred themselves to the accident and emergency department and had not contacted NHS Direct. We wanted to find out whether they were aware of the service. Altogether 266 …