nhs direct has had little impact in its first year

PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 272 - 22 Jul 2000

■ NHS Direct* had little impact on the demand forurgent healthcare in the UK during its first year, sayinvestigators from the University of Sheffield, UK.During its first year, the service logged about 68 500calls. Compared with the previous year, there was noapparent change in the total demand for ambulancejourneys and accident-and-emergency services.However, there was a halt in the previous trend ofincreasing use of general practitioner (GP)cooperatives. Use of such cooperatives rose 2% duringthe month before, but fell 0.8% during the monthafter, NHS Direct implementation (relative change of–2.9%; 95% CI –4.2% to –1.5%). This change wassignificantly different from that among twoneighbouring GP cooperatives not covered by NHSDirect (0.1%; –0.9 to 1.1%).* NHS Direct is a national, nurse-led telephone helpline. It was firstimplemented in March 1998 in an area covering 1.3 million peoplein the UK.

Munro J, et al. Impact of NHS Direct on demand for immediate care:observational study. BMJ 321: 150-153, 15 Jul 2000 800820919

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 22 Jul 2000 No. 2721173-5503/10/0272-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved