NHS 24

Last updated

NHS 24 is Scotland's national telehealth and telecare organisation. This special health board runs a telephone advice and triage service that covers the out-of-hours period (Mondays to Fridays between 6pm and 8am, public holidays and all weekend). The telephone service allows people who feel unwell or those caring for them to obtain health advice and information if it is not convenient or possible to wait until they can visit their general practitioner when the practice is next open. The advice line is not intended as a substitute for obtaining an emergency ambulance service via 999. The telehealth services provided by NHS Scotland fulfil some similar functions to NHS Direct Wales and the NHS 111 scheme in England.

Contents

Using NHS 24

The service can be used in more than one way:

Self-Help Guide (Internet)

This enables advice to be obtained without a consultation by answering a series of questions after accessing the main NHS24 web page and selecting the "NHS Self-help guide" option. Users will be given one of three final results :

Since 2005 the NHS 24 Internet service has included access to information from a "NHS Health Encyclopaedia", [1] giving information on illnesses, conditions, tests and treatment and to pharmacy opening times throughout Scotland. Some information that is made available via this internet service is used under licence from the UK Department of Health. All health information is from governed sources. To reflect the healthcare needs of the Scottish population NHS 24 work with individuals, groups and organisations from different areas of health and social care policy and practice in Scotland. [2]

Telephone

The normal telephone number, 111, is for most callers who are able to use a telephone without difficulty. This number is free to call from mobile phones as well as landlines, and was adopted across Scotland in April 2014 to replace the old number, 08454 24 24 24 which has been phased out. [3] [4] A translation service [5] is provided for a number of languages for which leaflets are issued which instruct callers to tell the NHS 24 staff "I am [nationality described in English], I do not speak English.". There is also a Textphone number.

Trained call handlers triage patients according to outcomes to a set of questions. If the service is busy, lower-priority calls will be placed in a clinical queue which is monitored. Depending on the triage outcome, callers will be called back within one, two or four hours. Callers are always told to call back if their condition worsens. During particularly busy times, callers are always told in a recorded message how long they will expect to wait before their call is answered.

At the end of the consultation, NHS 24 will contact the Scottish Ambulance Service if an emergency response is necessary.

Instructions for use of the service by people who do not speak English are available. [6]

History

Following the establishment of NHS Direct in England, Susan Deacon Minister for Health and Community Care announced in December 2000 that a 24-hour helpline service would be set up for Scotland. [7] [8] NHS 24 was established as a Special Health Board on 6 April 2001 [9] under the NHS 24 (Scotland) Order 2001, although the overall aims for Health Boards are defined by the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978 and subsequent legislation. [10] Management consultancy work that took place over an eight week period drew some comment. [11]

The telephone helpline service launched in May 2002, with the first contact centre in Aberdeen providing advice to callers from the Grampian area using around 85 nurses and 40 other staff. [12] The service was then rolled out to other areas in the North of Scotland. [13] By August 2002 there were three contact centres operational- in Aberdeen, Clydebank and South Queensferry. [14] By February 2004 the service had more than 800 staff, providing a service for people in the Ayrshire and Arran, Fife, Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Highland boards- effectively coverage of half the population of Scotland. [15] Within two years of being set up it had taken one million calls. [16]

At peak times, calls may be answered in any one of these centres. NHS 24 also acts as the first point of contact for primary care advice in the out-of-hours period.

The 2004 Scottish GP contract contained a right for GPs to opt-out of out-of-hours working. [17] By 2006, 80% of Scottish GP practices had exercised this right.

From Autumn 2004 patients calling NHS 24 began to experience delays. [18] The algorithms used by the NHS24 call handlers in 2004 were purchased under licence from an American company but these weren't divulged to other clinicians working in the health service due to clauses in the commercial agreement. [19] Having endured some chronic staffing problems, the service was having difficulty coping with demand by July 2005. [20] By January 2009, sickness absence had reduced and there was a low waiting time for call pick-ups except for during spikes of demand, however the organisation had now appointed its fourth chief executive in just five years. [21]

In August 2010, a health information website NHS Inform was launched, bringing together national and local health information. The first phase was officially opened by Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing. [22] The website later made use of a BrowseAloud feature - allowing users to listen to information where they preferred or need this. [23] There were almost 1.5 million calls a year being received by 2012/2013. [24]

In January 2013 plans were announces to make the service free to use, and accessible via a three digit number, instead of the eleven digit number. [25] In May 2014, the 111 number went live in Scotland. [26]

In September 2011, Capgemini were announced as the preferred bidder for a customer relations management system, replacing the previous supplier Clinical Solutions. [27] A contract was signed in April 2012, [28] and the new call handing and IT computer system, called the Future Programme was expected in 2013, but experienced significant delays. [29] With a current cost of £117 million, the new system crashed on 28 October 2015 shortly after it was launched. [30] It was shut down on 13 November to allow the problems to be resolved, [29] but by the following year it was thought that the new system might not be relaunched until 2017. [31]

Organisation

A management board has responsibility for the running of the organisation. [32]

See also

Related Research Articles

Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, often through its telephone helpline. Its name derives from the biblical Parable of the Good Samaritan, although the organisation itself is not religious.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">999 (emergency telephone number)</span> Emergency number in several countries

999 is an official emergency telephone number in a number of countries which allows the caller to contact emergency services for emergency assistance. Countries and territories using the number include Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Eswatini, Ghana, Guernsey, Hong Kong, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Kenya, Macau, Malaysia, Mauritius, Poland, Qatar, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, Seychelles, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe.

111 is the emergency telephone number in New Zealand. It was first implemented in Masterton and Carterton on 29 September 1958, and was progressively rolled out nationwide with the last exchanges converting in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Childline</span> British youth phone counselling service

Childline is a British counselling service for children and young people aged up to 18 in the United Kingdom provided by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. They deal with any issues which cause distress or concern; some of the most common issues include child abuse, bullying, mental illness, parental separation and or divorce, teenage pregnancy, substance misuse, neglect, and psychological abuse.

A crisis hotline is a phone number people can call to get immediate emergency telephone counseling, usually by trained volunteers. The first such service was founded in England in 1951 and such hotlines have existed in most major cities of the English speaking world at least since the mid-1970s. Initially set up to help those contemplating suicide, many have expanded their mandate to deal more generally with emotional crises. Similar hotlines operate to help people in other circumstances, including rape, bullying, self-harm, runaway children, human trafficking, and people who identify as LGBT or intersex. Despite crisis hotlines being common, their effectiveness in reducing suicides is not clear.

NHS Direct was the health advice and information service provided by the National Health Service (NHS), established in March 1998. The nurse-led telephone information service provided residents and visitors in England with healthcare advice 24 hours a day, every day of the year through telephone contact on the national non-geographic 0845 46 47 number. The programme also provided a web based symptom checkers on the NHS Direct website and via mobile, both as apps for iPhone and Android smart phones and a mobile website.

119 (one-one-nine) is an emergency telephone number in parts of Asia and in Jamaica. From May 2020, 119 was introduced in the United Kingdom as the single non-emergency number for the COVID-19 testing helpline in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. From January 2022, 119 was introduced in Romania as the single non-emergency number for reporting cases of abuse, neglect, exploitation and any other form of violence against the child.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Ambulance Service</span> Ambulance service in London

The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust (LAS) is an NHS trust responsible for operating ambulances and answering and responding to urgent and emergency medical situations within the London region of England. The service responds to 999 phone calls across the region, and 111 phone calls from certain parts, providing triage and advice to enable an appropriate level of response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh Ambulance Service</span> NHS trust and ambulance service in Wales

The Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust is the national ambulance service for Wales. It was established on 1 April 1998 and as of December 2018 has 3,400 staff providing ambulance and related services to the 3 million residents of Wales. As of 1 April 2024, the trust was awarded "university" status by the Welsh government, making it the second ambulance trust to achieve university status in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS Scotland</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in Scotland

NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly–funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland, supported by seven special non-geographic health boards, and Public Health Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom</span>

Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom provide emergency care to people with acute illness or injury and are predominantly provided free at the point of use by the four National Health Services (NHS) of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is only free to UK residents and a charge may be made to those not entitled to free NHS care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthcare in the United Kingdom</span>

Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each having their own systems of publicly funded healthcare, funded by and accountable to separate governments and parliaments, together with smaller private sector and voluntary provision. As a result of each country having different policies and priorities, a variety of differences have developed between these systems since devolution.

NHS Direct Wales is a 24-hour telephone and internet health advice service provided by NHS Wales to enable people to obtain advice when use of the national emergency telephone number does not seem to be appropriate but there is some degree of urgency; it also functions as a confidential advice service for some medical matters which a patient might be reluctant to discuss with their own General Practitioner (GP) and has subsidiary helplines for specific health matters such as human papillomavirus (HPV).

The Patients Association is an independent charity operating in the UK that aims to improve patients' experience of healthcare. Established in 1963, it became a registered charity in 1991. The Patients Association works with patients directly: they are its members and supporters, and also the people who benefit from the organisation's help and advice services. The Chief Executive is Rachel Power, Julie Thallon is the Acting Chair.

HealthLinkBC is a government-funded telehealth service launched in 2001, which provides non-emergency health information to the residents of British Columbia, Canada through combined telephone, internet, mobile app, and print resources. HealthLink BC has two dedicated phone numbers 8-1-1 and 7-1-1 for deaf and hard of hearing callers.

111 is a free-to-call single non-emergency number medical helpline operating in England, Scotland and Wales. The 111 phone service has replaced the various non-geographic 0845 rate numbers and is part of each country's National Health Service: in England the service is known as NHS 111; in Scotland, NHS 24; and in Wales, NHS111 Wales.

101 is the police single non-emergency number (SNEN) in the United Kingdom (UK), which automatically connects the caller to their local police force, in a similar manner to the pre-existing 999 emergency number. The 101 service was created to ease pressure, and abuse of the existing 999 system. Hazel Blears, then a UK government minister in the Home Office, stated that the new system would "strengthen community engagement". In 2004, ten million 999 calls were made in the UK; however, 70% of those calls were deemed not to be an emergency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NHS Pathways</span>

NHS Pathways is a triage software utilised by the National Health Service of England to triage public telephone calls for medical care and emergency medical services – such as 999 or 111 calls – in some NHS trusts and five of the ambulance services in the country. In its emergency capacity, it has replaced the Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System for some trusts, and in non-emergency telephone triage it is found in many medical care triage systems, such as NHS 111.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Silver Line</span> Free telephone helpline for older people in the United Kingdom

The Silver Line is a free confidential telephone helpline offering information, friendship and advice to older people in the United Kingdom, available 24 hours a day. As of 1 October 2019 The Silver Line joined forces with Age UK to help more of the older people who are struggling with loneliness and isolation. The Silver Line is a subsidiary of Age UK and still has its own brand, registered charity number, Board of Trustees and CEO.

Healthdirect Australia, otherwise known as just Healthdirect and formerly the National Health Call Centre Network, is the national health advice service in Australia. Funded by the Australian Government and all state and territory governments, Healthdirect provides a number of 24/7 health helplines to all Australians.

References

  1. "NHS 24: Report on the 2005/6 Audit" (PDF). Audit Scotland. 31 March 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  2. "NHS inform editorial policy". www.nhsinform.scot. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  3. "Our new number is 111". NHS 24. 29 April 2014.
  4. "New 111 freephone number for NHS 24 helpline". BBC News. 29 April 2014.
  5. "Language Line". NHS 24.[ dead link ]
  6. "Other languages". NHS 24. Archived from the original on 11 October 2011.
  7. "New helpline for NHS patients". BBC News . 13 December 2000. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  8. "Helpline puts medics on call". BBC News. 15 August 2001. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  9. "Press: Background". NHS24. 22 April 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  10. "NHS 24: Management statement". NHS24. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  11. "NHS hotline consultancy costs attacked". BBC News. 25 March 2001. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  12. "NHS helpline's 'teething trouble'". BBC News. 16 July 2002. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  13. "NHS 24 goes live" (Press release). Scottish Government. 26 August 2002. Archived from the original on 22 July 2004.
  14. "'Too soon to judge' NHS helpline". BBC News. 27 May 2004. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  15. "Helpline 'taking staff from wards'". BBC News. 22 February 2004. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  16. "NHS helpline takes millionth call". BBC News. 5 May 2004. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  17. "Scots doctors no longer on call". BBC News. 31 December 2004. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  18. "NHS 24 savaged by official review". BBC News. 2 June 2005. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  19. "Prognosis for NHS24 is that it will simply waste away". The Scotsman . 2 May 2004. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  20. "Health helpline issues new advice". BBC News. 15 July 2005. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  21. "NHS 24 is safe territory for fourth chief executive". The Herald . 12 January 2009. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  22. "Health information service launches". BBC News. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  23. "Scots top NHS condition searches revealed". BBC News. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  24. Elliott, Alison M; McAteer, Anne; Heaney, David; Ritchie, Lewis D; Hannaford, Philip C (2015). "Examining the role of Scotland's telephone advice service (NHS 24) for managing health in the community: analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data". BMJ Open . 5 (8): e007293. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007293 . PMC   4554912 . PMID   26310396.
  25. "New number and free calls to NHS 24 announced". BBC News. 23 January 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  26. Matthews-King, Alex (2 May 2014). "Scottish NHS 111 goes live but is 'complete contrast' to English version". Pulse . Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  27. Hitchcock, Gill (21 September 2011). "NHS 24 picks Capgemini". The Guardian . Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  28. Rossi, Ben (13 April 2012). "Capgemini wins £30m contract to bring CRM to NHS". www.information-age.com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  29. 1 2 "NHS 24 shelves new £117m call-handling system". BBC News. 13 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  30. Puttick, Helen (29 October 2015). "New multi-million pound technology at NHS 24 abandoned within an hour". The Herald. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  31. "New delay for NHS 24 computer system roll out". BBC News. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  32. "NHS 24 board". NHS 24. Retrieved 27 August 2020.