Florence Nightingale is only a phone call away! (NHS Direct)

Member Name: jo1976

Product:	NHS Direct
Date:	23/03/09 (187 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, quick response, reassuring and informative service

Disadvantages: Not a freephone number

As my luck would have it, the day before Mothers' Day saw my youngest come down with a tummy bug - sickness and diarrhoea - lovely! Given that this carried on for almost 24 hours and over a weekend, when we are at the mercy of the 'Emergency GP Service' rather than with ready access to my own GP, I decided to turn to NHS Direct for some advice.

NHS Direct is a telephone advice line (also available online) offering advice on medical issues which is accessible 24 hours per day. Fortunately, even with two children, I've never had cause to use this service before today.

Yesterday morning, after another failed attempt to get my youngest to keep some fluids down, I phoned the NHS Direct helpline on 0845 4647 for advice, mainly because I was worried that he was going to become dehydrated. I got connected to a recorded message pretty swiftly, warning me that the service was under unprecedented demand (great!) and asking me only to hold on to speak to an advisor if it was an 'urgent' matter. I wasn't totally sure whether my query was classed as 'urgent'. Obviously, it wasn't a critical emergency as I'd be calling 999 or rushing up to A&E if it was. Anyway, as the GP always gives children under two priority, I decided that this was 'urgent' and stayed on the line to speak to an advisor (although not before I'd listened to some unsolicited warnings and advice about the Winter Vomiting Virus!) So, there I was waiting patiently to be transferred to a human being when the line went dead. Not the best response when you've finally decided that your query was actually urgent!

I wasn't to be deterred and range the number again. Thankfully, this time I did get through to a human being who took my name and address and my son's name and date of birth along with a brief description of the reason for calling. She then told me that a nurse would call be back shortly. She did warn me that call backs could take up to an hour during busy periods but that the current waiting time was around ten minutes. Whilst it may be anxiety-provoking waiting around for a call back, the one advantage to this system is that you're not paying the cost of hanging on the phone waiting (as the original phone call isn't a freephone number. 0845 numbers are local rate but still add up if you're on the phone for a while.) As it happened a nurse called me back less than a minute after ending the call.

The nurse that I spoke to was very calm, clear and professional. She did run through a series of health and safety checks with extreme questions such as 'Is your son having difficulties breathing?', 'Has he gone blue in the face?' and 'Does he have a rash anywhere on his body?' (Aargh - automatically starting to panic about meningitis!) Luckily, the answers to all those questions was an emphatic no. (By that time, my son was happily munching on a piece of toast.) My main anxiety was that my son may become dehydrated, as he hadn't been able to keep fluids down for any length of time. The nurse's questions and checks helped to reassure me that he wasn't dehydrated as yet and she gave me some useful advice to help avoid it happening. She was clear and informative without being patronising, which isn't always an easy balance to strike. At the end of the conversation, she gave a brief summary of the advice that she'd given, along with a recommendation for some medication (dioralyte) which my son would be able to take. As you'd expect, the call ended with advice to visit my own GP if the symptoms persisted.

Having used this service, I would recommend it to anybody with a specific health query (particularly during evenings and weekends when you haven't got ready access to a GP or a pharmacist.) It certainly saves a trip to the Emergency GP which is not always the most productive of activities. I came away from the phone feeling reassured and knowing that we had done everything that we could for my son. The friendly nurse even wished me a 'Happy Mothers' Day' when she ended the call. NHS Direct seems a great, informative service to me and I'm sure it must be more cost-effective to operate this sort of telephone-based helpline than the more traditional face-to-face service (complete with complimentary germs and viruses!)

NHS Direct can be contacted on 0845 4647 or online at www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk

Summary: Who you gonna call? NHS Direct!