Goverment confirms scrapping NHS direct.

[Aidan's Mummy]

There is a petition here: https://www.savenhsdirect.co.uk/ Apparently the government have said they will debate in parliament any petition that gets more than 100,000 signatures. Doubt that'll last but worth putting to the test!

Signed hun
xx

 

[smokey]

LOL at people saying others should get their facts straight when theirs are so clearly wrong.

1) NHS 111 has just started to be piloted in the NE and until that trial is completed no-one will know if or how it will work.
2) NHS 111 is the culmination of years of work so was started by Labour, presumably not with the intention the new government has of replacing NHS Direct but instead to alleviate pressure on the ambulance network.
3) NHS 111 is a health line, nowhere have I seen it stated as to be used for police or fire.
4) The fundamental difference between the two services is that instead of being staffed by medically qualified people with years of training the money will be saved by instead staffing with call centre staff or will get 60 hours of training. If you think that is sufficient to decide whether or not your poorly child needs to be seen then good luck to you! The end result will be either people not referred when they should be and lives put at risk or people being routinely referred in order to not get sued and A&E being put under too much additional strain.

NHS Direct is excellent. We've used it a few times with Byron and once or twice for ourselves. Most recently was a couple of weeks ago when he had blood in his stools in the middle of the night after a week of a terrible viral bowel infection. Our out of hours line (which we tried) was broken and couldn't connect to the out of hours surgery. Without NHS Direct we would've been sat unnecessarily in A&E for hours instead.

There is a petition here: https://www.savenhsdirect.co.uk/ Apparently the government have said they will debate in parliament any petition that gets more than 100,000 signatures. Doubt that'll last but worth putting to the test!

The GP issue is a valid one however one has to work with a system that is in place, with health a giant overhall is not easy and requires a special degree of continuity. That said, the government is spending £3bn on reviewing the NHS instead of investing that in patient care. Of course a Tory review means privatisation. The GP services are going to be looking after 90% of the NHS budget. Terrifying given they mostly manage their own practices so poorly!

If it was started by labour why are they so up in arms about it and the ones starting the accusations if it apparently "replacing nhs"

It is being trialed as a medical helpline and if successfull will then be implented with fire and police along with it, this has been all over the news stating this for the last few weeks.

I have been lucky enough to only ever need nhs direct once and when we phoned it all it was was a call centre with a guy reading off a list of questions from a script, he then passed our detailes on and 10 minutes later I got a call back from a nurse giving us advice according to what we had told the original guy and then told us to take him down to our thames doc.
To me that is a call centre and there for will be no different in regards to the original person not being medicaly trained and no difference between a call centre under nhs direct or 111, dont get me wrong I was very happy with nhs direct but dont see any differance between that and how 111 would work.

 

[aly888]

I have a friend that works on the phones for 999 calls to the police and she has phone calls from people saying they have lost their phones

xx

is right! Idiots. Although my OH was going to dial 999 when his motorbike got stolen

exactly so now for this you can call 111 instead , saving resources for when they are truley needed and creating a service that didnt exist before

you shouldnt be ringing 999 for that anyway, with or without this new 111 service I'd much rather ring my police station directly (on the local number) if my car/bike got stolen and not some call centre somewhere that doesnt even know my local area.
Introducing this 'new' number isn't going to stop people dialling 999 when it's not needed the police have always had their own station numbers that you can call in non-emergency situations, but you still get the idiots ringing 999 to say they are locked out their house!!
I can see it being more useful for the fire service though. Yesterday, someone clearly dialled 999 near me to report a fire that had been started in the street...but judging by the charred remains on the ground after the engine had left, the fire couldnt have been more than about 2 foot high. Something that could easily have been put out with a bucket of water from your kitchen sink, and not something that required a huge fire engine and a full team of fire men

I have only used NHS direct twice (actually, the first time my OH used it on my behalf coz I was unfit to even use the phone). The first time they advised my OH how to take care of me and what things to look out for and at what point to take me to hospital. After 5 days at home and a few calls to NHSdirect they told him that he had to take me to hospital, but when I got there they already had all my details and everything that had been recorded over the last five days and were in a much better place to start with regards to treating me than if I had gone straight there on day 1 or 2! The second time was when they suspected my pregnancy to be ectopic (which it wasnt) but if I hadnt have rang them, I wouldnt have gone to A&E, and if it had been ectopic then things could have gone downhill fast!

NHSdirect is good for both solving the issue of people going to A&E for minor illness and injury that could be treated at home, BUT is also good for those of us who put off going to A&E (for whatever reason) and could, and probably have, saved lives

 

[smokey]

I have a friend that works on the phones for 999 calls to the police and she has phone calls from people saying they have lost their phones

xx

is right! Idiots. Although my OH was going to dial 999 when his motorbike got stolen

exactly so now for this you can call 111 instead , saving resources for when they are truley needed and creating a service that didnt exist before

you shouldnt be ringing 999 for that anyway, with or without this new 111 service I'd much rather ring my police station directly (on the local number) if my car/bike got stolen and not some call centre somewhere that doesnt even know my local area.
Introducing this 'new' number isn't going to stop people dialling 999 when it's not needed the police have always had their own station numbers that you can call in non-emergency situations, but you still get the idiots ringing 999 to say they are locked out their house!!
I can see it being more useful for the fire service though. Yesterday, someone clearly dialled 999 near me to report a fire that had been started in the street...but judging by the charred remains on the ground after the engine had left, the fire couldnt have been more than about 2 foot high. Something that could easily have been put out with a bucket of water from your kitchen sink, and not something that required a huge fire engine and a full team of fire men

Thats my point you shouldnt be ringing 999 for this but at least you could ring a non emergancy number instead as you still need a incedent number to be able to report it to your insurance company.
Yes idiots will still ring 999 for stupid reasons but with a non emergancy number in place less idiots will ring it and that is the goal

The main draw back I can see is people being unsure if its could be classed as an emergancy or not and delaying treatment by either ringing a non emergancy number and it ending up being more severe then first thought or just not ringing anyone out of confusion and the thought of not wanting to look stupid by ringing the wrong one.

 

[polo_princess]

I feel really old now because my family doctor used to come out to the house rain or shine if i was poorly as a child

 

[sequeena]

I feel really old now because my family doctor used to come out to the house rain or shine if i was poorly as a child

Mine did too, I'm only 21

 

[smokey]

I have a friend that works on the phones for 999 calls to the police and she has phone calls from people saying they have lost their phones

xx

is right! Idiots. Although my OH was going to dial 999 when his motorbike got stolen

exactly so now for this you can call 111 instead , saving resources for when they are truley needed and creating a service that didnt exist before

you shouldnt be ringing 999 for that anyway, with or without this new 111 service I'd much rather ring my police station directly (on the local number) if my car/bike got stolen and not some call centre somewhere that doesnt even know my local area.
Introducing this 'new' number isn't going to stop people dialling 999 when it's not needed the police have always had their own station numbers that you can call in non-emergency situations, but you still get the idiots ringing 999 to say they are locked out their house!!
I can see it being more useful for the fire service though. Yesterday, someone clearly dialled 999 near me to report a fire that had been started in the street...but judging by the charred remains on the ground after the engine had left, the fire couldnt have been more than about 2 foot high. Something that could easily have been put out with a bucket of water from your kitchen sink, and not something that required a huge fire engine and a full team of fire men

I have only used NHS direct twice (actually, the first time my OH used it on my behalf coz I was unfit to even use the phone). The first time they advised my OH how to take care of me and what things to look out for and at what point to take me to hospital. After 5 days at home and a few calls to NHSdirect they told him that he had to take me to hospital, but when I got there they already had all my details and everything that had been recorded over the last five days and were in a much better place to start with regards to treating me than if I had gone straight there on day 1 or 2! The second time was when they suspected my pregnancy to be ectopic (which it wasnt) but if I hadnt have rang them, I wouldnt have gone to A&E, and if it had been ectopic then things could have gone downhill fast!

NHSdirect is good for both solving the issue of people going to A&E for minor illness and injury that could be treated at home, BUT is also good for those of us who put off going to A&E (for whatever reason) and could, and probably have, saved lives

The new 111 system once its finished its pilot will hopfully still fullfill the same role, its not like we are being left with nothing just a new system

 

[smokey]

I feel really old now because my family doctor used to come out to the house rain or shine if i was poorly as a child

Same here, ours still does.

 

[polo_princess]

Ive used NHS Direct twice and one time they didnt even ring me back until the next day, suffice to say i wasnt impressed

I was quite lucky, my doctor was a 1 man band with a surgery built alongside his own home, so if i ever needed to see him my mum would just call and take me down there. Gone are those days, its just take a number and get in line

My local one now does both home visits and telephone appointments, but if you want a home visit its the duty GP only, not your regular one.

 

[aly888]

I have a friend that works on the phones for 999 calls to the police and she has phone calls from people saying they have lost their phones

xx

is right! Idiots. Although my OH was going to dial 999 when his motorbike got stolen

exactly so now for this you can call 111 instead , saving resources for when they are truley needed and creating a service that didnt exist before

you shouldnt be ringing 999 for that anyway, with or without this new 111 service I'd much rather ring my police station directly (on the local number) if my car/bike got stolen and not some call centre somewhere that doesnt even know my local area.
Introducing this 'new' number isn't going to stop people dialling 999 when it's not needed the police have always had their own station numbers that you can call in non-emergency situations, but you still get the idiots ringing 999 to say they are locked out their house!!
I can see it being more useful for the fire service though. Yesterday, someone clearly dialled 999 near me to report a fire that had been started in the street...but judging by the charred remains on the ground after the engine had left, the fire couldnt have been more than about 2 foot high. Something that could easily have been put out with a bucket of water from your kitchen sink, and not something that required a huge fire engine and a full team of fire men

Thats my point you shouldnt be ringing 999 for this but at least you could ring a non emergancy number instead as you still need a incedent number to be able to report it to your insurance company.
Yes idiots will still ring 999 for stupid reasons but with a non emergancy number in place less idiots will ring it and that is the goal

The main draw back I can see is people being unsure if its could be classed as an emergancy or not and delaying treatment by either ringing a non emergancy number and it ending up being more severe then first thought or just not ringing anyone out of confusion and the thought of not wanting to look stupid by ringing the wrong one.

but that is my point...there already IS a non emergancy number for EVERY individual police force, but people don't use it. So how is bringing a new number in going to change that??

I dont see that as a drawback, if it's handled correctly. I would hope that this 111 service would have the ability to transfer it directly onto a 999 call if they feel it needs to be it would basically work like a filtering system, so the non-emergancy calls dont clogg up the 999 centre, but if a 999 call comes through to 111 it can quickly and easily be passed through accordingly! THAT is if they can do that though...otherwise yes, it could delay a real emergancy

 

[Hayley90]

I can safely say i have never had to use nhs direct, so dont even know how it currently works. However the nhs 111 thing sounds good if it will eventually incorporate all 3 services.

I dont understand what the fuss is all about

and i think a nationwide number to ring for non emergencies is MUCH better than ringing a local station - mine doesnt pick up half the time, and when they do they SUCK at responding. Hopefully the people at nhs 111 wont have a bias opinion of certain areas (the estate where i used to live was notorious, so every theft of bike, burnt tree or whatever was met with a 2-3 day wait for a policeman! they just thought "same old same old" and let it be ) maybe 111 will assess the situations on a more level ground!

 

[going_crazy]

Ooo... this is an interesting subject and I'm sorry for butting in

I've rung NHS direct a few times. I have to say, the 'new' NHS111 service doesn't sound too much different. I have to just point out though, that the last time I called NHS was when my DD's breathing was weird.
Slightly OT, but......
Firstly, I had called SELDOC (out of hour GP) and explained my concerns. I was told that they were very busy and because I lived close to the hospital I had the option to take her there and they would not send anyone out to me Ok, I do live fairly close, but I also have 3 children who I did not want to drag out at 10pm (OH was at work)!! So then I called NHS direct and I explained everything to the nurse over the phone and answered all her questions and she told me to take DD to the doc's in the morning to get checked (10pm) An hour later DD was still breathing funny so I called back to let them know and I was told again that she probably had a cold and should see the doc in the morning

By 1am DD was still just as bad so I called 999. The rapid response unit was with us within 5 minutes and after DD had been assessed we were told she needed urgent hospital treatment. Once we got to the hospital, and after several tests etc I was told DD had acute bronchopneumonia and should've been seen in the hospital at least 3 hours ago. She had to stay in hospital for a week to recover and has now been diagnosed with asthma.

Now, I know this is not the fault of NHS direct, but I just wanted to point out that sometimes it's hard to diagnose something over the phone..... What the nurse thought was a cold (from me answering her questions) could have actually been life threatening.
My main point is that I think money should be put into out of hours GP services, so that they CAN visit the patient to give a proper assessment.

I do like the NHS direct website though

 

[smokey]

I have a friend that works on the phones for 999 calls to the police and she has phone calls from people saying they have lost their phones

xx

is right! Idiots. Although my OH was going to dial 999 when his motorbike got stolen

exactly so now for this you can call 111 instead , saving resources for when they are truley needed and creating a service that didnt exist before

you shouldnt be ringing 999 for that anyway, with or without this new 111 service I'd much rather ring my police station directly (on the local number) if my car/bike got stolen and not some call centre somewhere that doesnt even know my local area.
Introducing this 'new' number isn't going to stop people dialling 999 when it's not needed the police have always had their own station numbers that you can call in non-emergency situations, but you still get the idiots ringing 999 to say they are locked out their house!!
I can see it being more useful for the fire service though. Yesterday, someone clearly dialled 999 near me to report a fire that had been started in the street...but judging by the charred remains on the ground after the engine had left, the fire couldnt have been more than about 2 foot high. Something that could easily have been put out with a bucket of water from your kitchen sink, and not something that required a huge fire engine and a full team of fire men

Thats my point you shouldnt be ringing 999 for this but at least you could ring a non emergancy number instead as you still need a incedent number to be able to report it to your insurance company.
Yes idiots will still ring 999 for stupid reasons but with a non emergancy number in place less idiots will ring it and that is the goal

The main draw back I can see is people being unsure if its could be classed as an emergancy or not and delaying treatment by either ringing a non emergancy number and it ending up being more severe then first thought or just not ringing anyone out of confusion and the thought of not wanting to look stupid by ringing the wrong one.

but that is my point...there already IS a non emergancy number for EVERY individual police force, but people don't use it. So how is bringing a new number in going to change that??
I dont see that as a drawback, if it's handled correctly. I would hope that this 111 service would have the ability to transfer it directly onto a 999 call if they feel it needs to be it would basically work like a filtering system, so the non-emergancy calls dont clogg up the 999 centre, but if a 999 call comes through to 111 it can quickly and easily be passed through accordingly! THAT is if they can do that though...otherwise yes, it could delay a real emergancy

Because how many people realy know the number of their local police without having to look it up? would a nationwide easy 3 digit number make it easier?

Our local police station is only manned 9-5 (its a tiny little thing built in what was once a public toilet) so anything out of those hours has to be dealt with by one of the other stations in one of the 5 surrounding towns and not all of those are open 24/7 meaning you not only have to know a phone number for the local one but numbers for the others as well that is just a nightmare when again a simple nationwide easy to remember 3 digit number could help.
And what if your visiting another town or county? are you suppose to memorise the phone numbers of loacal police forces before you go anywhere?

 

[SKATERBUN]

Never used it so wont miss it. Actually once looked up something on the webpage and it just said to go and see my GP anyway, pointless.

 

[Drazic<3]

When I had my MMC, I had a bit of a breakdown (obv) and they left me a week between finding out, and my treatment. I was awake constantly, working myself into a frenzy really. I spoke to a lovely man at NHS direct who spoke gently and kindly to me for ages. Sorted out sleeping tablets for me through the GP and generally treated me with respect. I will always thank them for that, they stopped me from going into complete meltdown.

111 was not designed to be NHS direct, and it will not forfill the same role. This is symptomatic of the Condem dismantling of the NHS and it cannot be allowed to happen because it won't be the last of it. I for one will be rioting on the streets before I let them take away our NHS for private healthcare.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

When I had my MMC, I had a bit of a breakdown (obv) and they left me a week between finding out, and my treatment. I was awake constantly, working myself into a frenzy really. I spoke to a lovely man at NHS direct who spoke gently and kindly to me for ages. Sorted out sleeping tablets for me through the GP and generally treated me with respect. I will always thank them for that, they stopped me from going into complete meltdown.

111 was not designed to be NHS direct, and it will not forfill the same role. This is symptomatic of the Condem dismantling of the NHS and it cannot be allowed to happen because it won't be the last of it. I for one will be rioting on the streets before I let them take away our NHS for private healthcare.

I will be joining you! I cant believe people can not see it is happening right before our eyes!

 

[Drazic<3]

In the words of Star Wars, "So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause."

 

[PeanutBean]

If it was started by labour why are they so up in arms about it and the ones starting the accusations if it apparently "replacing nhs"

It is being trialed as a medical helpline and if successfull will then be implented with fire and police along with it, this has been all over the news stating this for the last few weeks.

The 111 trial was announced in late 2009 through NHS Pathways. It was therefore under Labour but was not intended to replace NHS Direct. It was planned to be a way to streamline local care particularly ambulance callout and only for health. Labour and NHS Direct supporters are upset about this because the Condems have hijacked a system that is not fit for the purpose. NHS Direct has qualified nurses behind it, NHS 111 does not. The Tories may have a fancy it will in future be used for other emergency services but that is not what's being trialled. I've no problem with a national non-emergency number to take the pressure off 999, I doubt it would really make much difference though. In almost all cases it would be possible to locate the local police number or crimestoppers number if people could be bothered.

It's totally obvious that 111 won't be as good as NHS Direct. If it were it wouldn't be cheaper.

 

[winegums]

There is a petition here: https://www.savenhsdirect.co.uk/ Apparently the government have said they will debate in parliament any petition that gets more than 100,000 signatures. Doubt that'll last but worth putting to the test!

is there a petition to not save it? lol

 

[winegums]

LOL at people saying others should get their facts straight when theirs are so clearly wrong.

1) NHS 111 has just started to be piloted in the NE and until that trial is completed no-one will know if or how it will work.
2) NHS 111 is the culmination of years of work so was started by Labour, presumably not with the intention the new government has of replacing NHS Direct but instead to alleviate pressure on the ambulance network.
3) NHS 111 is a health line, nowhere have I seen it stated as to be used for police or fire.
4) The fundamental difference between the two services is that instead of being staffed by medically qualified people with years of training the money will be saved by instead staffing with call centre staff or will get 60 hours of training. If you think that is sufficient to decide whether or not your poorly child needs to be seen then good luck to you! The end result will be either people not referred when they should be and lives put at risk or people being routinely referred in order to not get sued and A&E being put under too much additional strain.

NHS Direct is excellent. We've used it a few times with Byron and once or twice for ourselves. Most recently was a couple of weeks ago when he had blood in his stools in the middle of the night after a week of a terrible viral bowel infection. Our out of hours line (which we tried) was broken and couldn't connect to the out of hours surgery. Without NHS Direct we would've been sat unnecessarily in A&E for hours instead.

There is a petition here: https://www.savenhsdirect.co.uk/ Apparently the government have said they will debate in parliament any petition that gets more than 100,000 signatures. Doubt that'll last but worth putting to the test!

The GP issue is a valid one however one has to work with a system that is in place, with health a giant overhall is not easy and requires a special degree of continuity. That said, the government is spending £3bn on reviewing the NHS instead of investing that in patient care. Of course a Tory review means privatisation. The GP services are going to be looking after 90% of the NHS budget. Terrifying given they mostly manage their own practices so poorly!

If it was started by labour why are they so up in arms about it and the ones starting the accusations if it apparently "replacing nhs"

It is being trialed as a medical helpline and if successfull will then be implented with fire and police along with it, this has been all over the news stating this for the last few weeks.

I have been lucky enough to only ever need nhs direct once and when we phoned it all it was was a call centre with a guy reading off a list of questions from a script, he then passed our detailes on and 10 minutes later I got a call back from a nurse giving us advice according to what we had told the original guy and then told us to take him down to our thames doc.
To me that is a call centre and there for will be no different in regards to the original person not being medicaly trained and no difference between a call centre under nhs direct or 111, dont get me wrong I was very happy with nhs direct but dont see any differance between that and how 111 would work.

exactly. when i phoned up she was like 'hmmm let me just google this' i was like WHAT??? and she laughed and was like 'i'm just checking on the internet'