NHS Direct’s website had record traffic figures last year, with 13.5m users of the website, an increase of around 30% from 2005. Over the same period the number of people calling the service declined.
The health information service, which recently expanded its services to Freeview television, also took around seven million calls in the year, a reduction of around 15% from 2005.
Over the ten day Christmas holiday period, the service received almost 250,000 phone calls and 340,000 website visits.
The busiest days for phone calls were Saturdays 23 and 30 December with nearly 35,000 calls each day.
More patients called about coughs and toothache over the festive period than in previous years but there was a reduction in chest pain complaints.
NHS Direct has released a top ten list of patient illnesses with stomach pain and jaw ache topping the list, followed by queries about coughs, vomiting and toothache.
Other common complaints included sore throats, chest pain, diarrhoea, ear-ache and fevers in toddlers.
Surfers online clicked most frequently on information about chicken pox, walk-in centres, diarrhoea, food poisoning and indigestion.
Throughout the holidays, the service began triage on 96 per cent of urgent cases within 20 minutes.
NHS Direct’s chief operating officer, Dr Mike Sadler said: “NHS Direct has answered nearly a quarter of a million phone calls over the past ten days. There has been even more visits to the our website and our digital TV service is now available in the majority of homes.
“By any measure that’s a lot of people helped: feedback from patients shows that they appreciate the service which is available 24/7 every day of the year and is an essential part of the modern health economy.”
As well as the phoneline, 0845 4647, and the website, the NHS Direct Interactive Digital TV service includes 3000 pages of information on 500 health topics and is available to almost 15m cable, satellite and Freeview viewers.
No statistics are currently available on the use of this service over the Christmas period.
Meanwhile in Scotland NHS 24 answered 93,436 calls, compared with 81,583 in 2005-6 following a winter respiratory bug, causing patients to inundate the helpline in search of advice. The service’s busiest day was 2 January, with 14,727 calls. It had predicted 12,317 and there were 14,332 calls to NHS 24 on 30 December, compared with an expected 8,908.
NHS 24 also improved its performance, answering 91 per cent of calls within 30 seconds compared to 75 per cent the previous year and the average time callers had to wait for their call to be answered was also down from 30 seconds to ten seconds.
NHS 24’s clinical director, Dr George Crooks, told The Scotsman: "We have been extremely busy, as expected, over the festive holidays with almost four times the number of calls than in a typical week. We have worked extremely closely with our partners in local out-of-hours services since July to ensure that care is available to those who need it over this time."
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