NHS to launch patient helpline

WORRIED PATIENTS from Birmingham to Cornwall will soon be able to ring a 24-hour NHS helpline after a pilot scheme proved so popular that more than 4,000 calls were received in a month.

The helpline, NHS Direct, is designed to provide a hi-tech "first port of call" for patients. Callers are put through to specially-trained nurses, available 365 days a year, who can give basic medical advice, or tell callers to see their GP, or get emergency help.

The 13 parts of the country to be covered by the helpline were unveiled by the Health minister, Alan Milburn, yesterday. He said an extra pounds 35m is to be spent across urban and rural areas, from Birmingham to Cornwall, by next April and will serve 19 million people.

Experts hope the service, which will be provided across England by the end of 2000, will have the added bonus of alleviating pressure on over- worked GPs and hospital accident and emergency units by filtering out non-urgent cases.

The helpline is being extended after the success of initial pilots in Newcastle, Preston and Milton Keynes, where more than 4,000 calls were received last month, according to the Department of Health. Analysis of the pilot projects, launched in March this year, shows the health- by-phone service has proved most popular among the elderly and families with young children.