HC Deb 23 November 1999 vol 339 cc463-4
8. Shona McIsaac (Cleethorpes)

If he will make a statement on the use of NHS Direct. [98933]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Ms Gisela Stuart)

NHS Direct currently handles around 100,000 calls a month. Nearly one in five callers have used the service before, indicating a high level of satisfaction with and confidence in NHS Direct. I am pleased to be able to inform my hon. Friend that NHS Direct will be available to her constituents in Cleethorpes from the end of November.

Shona McIsaac

Does not NHS Direct demonstrate the gulf of difference between Labour and the Conservative party? With us, health care is the price of a local phone call, and with the Conservative party, it is the price of private health provision. Does my hon. Friend have any evidence that health care is being extended through NHS Direct?

Ms Stuart

NHS Direct is the most visible demonstration that the Government are committed to modernising the national health service, not privatising it. In the House, a previous Health Minister described NHS Direct as "peripheral and frivolous", and that is not true. NHS Direct evidence shows that men in particular are using health advice more extensively; some 2,000 callers a month are directed to call an ambulance and therefore receive more appropriate services, and some two thirds of callers receive advice on treatment or seek GP services. If the Conservative party does not recognise those achievements, that simply shows how out of touch it is with the real world.

Dr. Peter Brand (Isle of Wight)

I am of course delighted that people contact the NHS when it is appropriate, but has the Minister done any work to demonstrate that calls to NHS Direct would not have been made to other services? What is the cost per contact for NHS Direct as opposed to the cost per contact for other services? Will the Minister assure us that where there are well-established out-of-hours services, NHS Direct will not become a competing service but will be integrated with existing services?

Ms Stuart

Independent evaluation of NHS Direct calls is being conducted, and all the evidence has consistently shown that two thirds of callers take action that is different from and more appropriate than the action that they had originally intended to take. More importantly, all the evidence in areas where NHS Direct works with GP co-operatives clearly shows that the service is supplementary to existing services. It not only helps patients but is welcomed by the medical community because it integrates services more effectively.

The university of Sheffield will publish more extensive research next year which will allow us to validate the current regional evidence, and by the end of next year, national figures will be available when the service is rolled out completely.