Impact of NHS Direct on demand for immediate care: observational study

OBJECTIVES: To quantify the impact of NHS Direct on the use of accident and emergency, ambulance, and general practitioner cooperative services. DESIGN: Observational study of trends in use of NHS Direct and other immediate care services over 24 months spanning introduction of NHS Direct. Setting Three areas in England in first wave of introduction of NHS Direct, and six nearby general practitioner cooperatives as controls. SUBJECTS: All contacts with these immediate care services. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in trends in use after introduction of NHS Direct. Results NHS Direct received about 68 500 calls from a population of 1.3 million in its first year of operation, of which 72% were out of hours and 22% about a child aged under 5 years. Changes in trends in use of accident and emergency departments and ambulance services after introduction of NHS Direct were small and non­significant. Changes in trends in use of general practitioner cooperatives were also small but significant, from an increase of 2.0% a month before introduction of NHS Direct to - 0.8% afterwards (relative change - 2.9% (95% confidence interval - 4.2% to - 1.5%)). This reduction in trend was significant both for calls handled by telephone advice alone and for those resulting in direct contact with a doctor. In contrast, the six control cooperatives showed no evidence of change in trend; an increase of 0.8% a month before NHS Direct and 0.9% after (relative change 0.1% ( - 0.9% to 1.1%)). CONCLUSION: In its first year NHS Direct did not reduce the pressure on NHS immediate care services, although it may have restrained increasing demand on one important part—general practitioners' out of hours services

Evaluation of NHS Direct ‘‘referral’’ to community pharmacists

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate a pilot scheme of referrals from a nurse-led telephone helpline (NHS Direct) to community pharmacists. METHODS: A multi-method approach, including analysis of routine data from NHS Direct, postal surveys of NHS Direct callers, analysis of anonymised transcripts of calls, a postal survey of callers referred to pharmacists, and face-to-face interviews with NHS Direct nurses. SETTING: Essex, Barking and Havering. KEY FINDINGS: During the first three months of the pilot scheme, 6% (1,995/31,674) of NHS Direct calls triaged by nurses were logged as referred to pharmacists. This built on an existing foundation of informal referral to pharmacists of 4%. There was no measurable change in callers’ views of the helpfulness of advice, enablement, or caller satisfaction associated with the scheme. Conditions sent to pharmacists included skin rash, cough, sore throat, stomach pain, and vomiting and/or diarrhoea. 86% (54/63) of callers referred to pharmacists during the scheme felt the referral was very or quite appropriate and 75% (48/64) attempted to contact a pharmacist. In general, those who did so found the experience a positive one: 65% (31/48) spoke to the pharmacist, and 80% (28/35) of people expressing an opinion were satisfied with the advice offered, but the lack of privacy in the pharmacy was of some concern. Although routine data indicated high usage of the scheme, nurse referral of callers to pharmacists declined over time. Their initial enthusiasm diminished due to concerns about the appropriateness of guidelines, their lack of understanding of the rationale behind some referrals, and the lack of feedback about the appropriateness of their referrals. CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of the pilot scheme has generated a range of recommendations for the wider national roll-out of the scheme, including revision of the guidelines and review of NHS Direct nurse training for referral to pharmacy. NHS Direct and pharmacists should consider how to strengthen the system of pharmacist feedback to NHS Direct

Integrating community pharmacy and NHS Direct - pharmacists' views

AIM:To establish the views of community pharmacists on NHS Direct and its forthcoming integration with community pharmacy. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire survey. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Pharmacists working in community pharmacies within the area of the NHS Direct Pharmacy pilot scheme - Essex, Barking and Havering. RESULTS: The response rate to the postal survey was 72% (263/364). Most pharmacies were generally supportive of NHS Direct (80%) and the pharmacy scheme in principle (83%), although their experience of the scheme in practice was limited. Perhaps because of this, the majority of pharmacists were unsure as to whether NHS Direct was referring appropriately, or whether the pharmacy would be able to meet the needs of patients without further referral. Almost half believed that patients referred by NHS Direct should be seen in a quiet area, away from the counter. Over two-thirds of pharmacists were willing to accommodate an NHS Direct information point in their pharmacy, although space was an issue. CONCLUSION: Overall the results of this study suggested that community pharmacists welcome their increasing involvement in the developing immediate care system. As the Government commitment in the NHS plan to integrate community pharmacy with NHS Direct becomes a reality across England and Wales over coming months the implications for pharmacists, in terms of workload and the adequacy of premises, will become clearer. Careful audit of the operation of the scheme will be essential

How helpful is NHS Direct? Postal survey of callers

NHS Direct, the new 24 hour telephone advice line staffed by nurses, was established to “provide easier and faster information for people about health, illness and the NHS so that they are better able to care for themselves and their families.” In March 1998, three first wave sites started in Lancashire, Milton Keynes, and Northumbria. As part of an extensive evaluation of this new service, we surveyed callers to determine how helpful they found the advice offered

A qualitative study exploring the general population's perception of rheumatoid arthritis after being informed about disease adaptation

Purpose: This study aimed to gain an understanding of what factors induce individuals to alter their opinions about a health condition after being informed about disease adaptation and being given time to reflect and deliberate on this information. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) states are used as an illustration. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 members of the general population. They completed two time trade-off exercises for three RA states and underwent an adaptation exercise (AE) which consisted of listening to recordings of patients discussing how they adapted to RA. Also included was a structured discussion to encourage the participant to reflect on how the patients have adapted. Participants were shown their own health state values, as well as patient values. Findings: After being informed about disease adaptation and reflecting on the information, participants were more likely to consider adaptation and alter their opinions of RA if they were able to empathise with the patients in the AE. This enabled individuals to feel that they could cope by reflecting on their experience of RA in family and friends, by drawing on others for support if they had RA, and by having a positive attitude towards life. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that there is a range of reasons for which people change their perceptions about RA; this requires further exploration

Impact of NHS Direct on other services: the characteristics and origins of its nurses

OBJECTIVE:: To characterise the NHS Direct nurse workforce and estimate the impact of NHS Direct on the staffing of other NHS nursing specialties. METHOD: A postal survey of NHS Direct nurses in all 17 NHS Direct call centres operating in June 2000. RESULTS: The response rate was 74% (682 of 920). In the three months immediately before joining NHS Direct, 20% (134 of 682, 95% confidence intervals 17% to 23%) of respondents had not been working in the NHS. Of the 540 who came from NHS nursing posts, one fifth had come from an accident and emergency department or minor injury unit (110 of 540), and one in seven from practice nursing (75 of 540). One in ten (65 of 681) nurses said that previous illness, injury, or disability had been an important reason for deciding to join NHS Direct. Sixty two per cent (404 of 649) of nurses felt their job satisfaction and work environment had improved since joining NHS Direct. CONCLUSION: The NHS Direct nurse workforce currently constitutes a small proportion (about 0.5%) of all qualified nurses in the NHS, although it recruits relatively experienced and well qualified nurses more heavily from some specialties, such as accident and emergency nursing, than others. However, its overall impact on staffing in any one specialty is likely to be small. NHS Direct has succeeded in providing employment for some nurses who might otherwise be unable to continue in nursing because of disability

Exploring the effect of changes to service provision on the use of unscheduled care in England: population surveys

Background Unscheduled care is defined here as when someone seeks treatment or advice for a health problem without arranging to do so more than a day in advance. Recent health policy initiatives in England have focused on introducing new services such as NHS Direct and walk in centres into the unscheduled care system. This study used population surveys to explore the effect of these new services on the use of traditional providers of unscheduled care, and to improve understanding of help seeking behaviour within the system of unscheduled care. Methods Cross-sectional population postal surveys were undertaken annually over the five year period 1998 to 2002 in two geographical areas in England. Each year questionnaires were sent to 5000 members of the general population in each area. Results The response rate was 69% (33,602/48,883). Over the five year period 16% (5223/33602) 95%CI (15.9 to 16.1) of respondents had an unscheduled episode in the previous four weeks and this remained stable over time (p = 0.170). There was an increased use of telephone help lines over the five years, reflecting the change in service provision (p = 0.008). However, there was no change in use of traditional services over this time period. Respondents were most likely to seek help from general practitioners (GPs), family and friends, and pharmacists, used by 9.0%, 7.2% and 6.3% respectively of the 5815 respondents in 2002. Most episodes involved contact with a single service only: 7.0% (2363/33,602) of the population had one contact and 2% (662/33602) had three or more contacts per episode. GPs were the most frequent point of first contact with services. Conclusion Introducing new services to the provision of unscheduled care did not affect the use of traditional services. A large majority of the population continued to turn to their GP for unscheduled health care

NHS Direct: consistency of triage outcomes

OBJECTIVES: To examine the consistency of triage outcomes by nurses using four types of computerised decision support software in NHS Direct. METHODS: 119 scenarios were constructed based on calls to ambulance services that had been assigned the lowest priority category by the emergency medical dispatch systems in use. These scenarios were presented to nurses working in four NHS Direct call centres using different computerised decision support software, including the NHS Clinical Assessment System. RESULTS: The overall level of agreement between the nurses using the four systems was “fair” rather than “moderate” or “good” (k=0.375, 95% CI: 0.34 to 0.41). For example, the proportion of calls triaged to accident and emergency departments varied from 22% (26 of 119) to 44% (53 of 119). Between 21% (25 of 119) and 31% (37 of 119) of these low priority ambulance calls were triaged back to the 999 ambulance service. No system had both high sensitivity and specificity for referral to accident and emergency services. CONCLUSIONS: There were large differences in outcome between nurses using different software systems to triage the same calls. If the variation is primarily attributable to the software then standardising on a single system will obviously eliminate this. As the calls were originally made to ambulance services and given the lowest priority, this study also suggests that if, in the future, ambulance services pass such calls to NHS Direct then at least a fifth of these may be passed back unless greater sensitivity in the selection of calls can be achieved

A qualitative study exploring the general population's perception of rheumatoid arthritis after being informed about disease adaptation

Purpose: This study aimed to gain an understanding of what factors induce individuals to alter their opinions about a health condition after being informed about disease adaptation and being given time to reflect and deliberate on this information. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) states are used as an illustration. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 members of the general population. They completed two time trade-off exercises for three RA states and underwent an adaptation exercise (AE) which consisted of listening to recordings of patients discussing how they adapted to RA. Also included was a structured discussion to encourage the participant to reflect on how the patients have adapted. Participants were shown their own health state values, as well as patient values. Findings: After being informed about disease adaptation and reflecting on the information, participants were more likely to consider adaptation and alter their opinions of RA if they were able to empathise with the patients in the AE. This enabled individuals to feel that they could cope by reflecting on their experience of RA in family and friends, by drawing on others for support if they had RA, and by having a positive attitude towards life. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that there is a range of reasons for which people change their perceptions about RA; this requires further exploration

The impact of disease adaptation information on general population values for rheumatoid arthritis states

Economic evaluation of healthcare technologies uses values for hypothetical health states elicited from the general population rather than patients. However, they may not consider adaptation. This study explored the extent to which the general population changes their initial values, and the factors that influenced this change, after being informed about adaptation. Three rheumatoid arthritis (RA) states were used for illustration. Two respondent groups were interviewed. The Initially Uninformed Group initially valued the RA states. An adaptation exercise followed, where they listened to recordings of patients discussing how they adapted; they then valued the same states again. The Informed Group underwent the adaptation exercise before valuing the states. The difference between the valuations was examined using t-tests. A multivariate regression was developed to assess the factors that impacted individuals to change their initial values. After undergoing the adaptation exercise, the Initially Uninformed Group statistically increased their values for the RA states. When the second values of the Initially Uninformed Group were compared to the first values of the Informed Group, there were no statistical differences, implying that there was no interviewer effect. Younger and healthier individuals were more likely to increase their initial values after being informed about adaptation