NHS Direct to be axed
Ovalteenie
Posts: 24,169
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the Tories are scrapping it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/27/nhs-direct-health-phone-service
not sure how useful it was anyway..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/27/nhs-direct-health-phone-service
not sure how useful it was anyway..
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There'll be nothing left by the time this coalition government is over.
I only used NHS Direct on one occasion and they were very helpful to my questions and predicament. They even sent me some information through the post the next day.
The replacement service will not have trained clinical advisors, sounds like more of an information line than an actual helpline.
The idea was that NHS Direct/24 would ease the burden on GPs and hospital A&E. A lot of the GPs gave up on call, instead you get put through to NHS Direct. Wonder what will happen to out of hours service provision now?
I agree, it was a very helpful service and must have taken pressure off other services. At weekends especially.
No wonder locally it only caused more strain on the A&E, though not helped by Dss surgeries not taking evening / night-time patients / coming out to visit and expecting you to travel to some useless out-of hours place, so people went to A&E instead.
This is all I ever got from them. Bloody useless whenever I've rung them.
On the two occasions I've used them, they were excellent and helped to give me confidence that what I was proposing to do would be safe and effective - saved me a trip to accident & emergency too.
Bad move by the Tories, bad move. The fact that the Liberals haven't managed to stop it takes them down a big notch in my estimation too. The way they are going, being rolled over by the Tories, they won't be getting any tactical votes from me any time soon.
Yes, Hindsight is a wonderful thing, fortunately.
This is not deficit reduction here , but the Conservative Government dismantling anything set up post 1997, bitter much?
What do you mean? That it is only with hindsight I realised I didn't need an ambulance? I can assure you I didn't need hindsight to know that I didn't need an ambulance for a chest infection. The other time they suggested a+e was for a cluster migraine. Again, not much a+e could have done for that, I wanted advise on over the counter pills for it.
It's time such services were cut and better access to clinics and hospitals put in place instead.
I never slept all night and rang GP first thing, he sent an ambulance straight away for me as he thought I had had a stroke.
Turned out he was quite right too, whilst in hospital a doctor advised me never to ring NHS Direct in an emergency
I thought that NHS Direct was supposed to take the burden off surgeries and prevent unnecessary doctors appointments? But I presume that the ConDems know what they are doing. They have also pulled funding for an organisation called Becta which promotes the use of IT in schools and gives guidance for IT access for children with special needs which is due to close now later this year.
This government is a total joke, and that's from a lifelong Tory supporter.
The problem is, how do you know it's an emergency? I'd have thought that being unable to walk and unable to use your left arm was an emergency (but that doesn't excuse the duff info you were given)
I hope they do the same here in Scotland (replace NHS24 with NHS 111)
Yes they take your details and call you back but if it is an emergancy you should heading to A & E.
Lot of the advise is available on the website.
So it won't be missed by me.