The Department of Health has said that it will publish proposals for a single, national telephone number for urgent care later this year.
Responding to this week’s Healthcare Commission report on emergency and urgent care, the DH said: “As announced in Lord Darzi’s review of the NHS, we are looking at the benefits of a national number and will outline the next steps for this later in the year.”
The Commission found that patients were often confused about how to navigate between A&E, out of hours, NHS Direct and other services, and that this could impact on the care they received. It also found that services can be fragmentary and that data transfer between them needs to be improved.
It recommended that the government should “support the integration of services and simplify the way services are accessed, for example, through piloting of a single telephone number for urgent care services.” It argued that “single telephone number has the potential to ensure fewer people attend the wrong services.”
The Ambulance Service Network called for a new national telephone number for urgent non-life threatening calls earlier this year. It argued this could use real-time data to ensure patients needs are accurately recorded and that paramedics have as much information as possible.
However, in its response to the report, NHS Direct chief executive Matt Tee argued: “No other provider in England could equal the capability, safety and connectivity already in place with NHS Direct. A service which today can deliver the vision of a single point of contact for non emergency health needs.”