The NHS telephone and online help service, also available to contact via social medias Twitter and Facebook. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and offers nurse-led healthcare advice and information to provide assistance and reassurance.

Users of the service, are submitted to a series of questions on their symptoms or problem. Non-urgent problems are often given simple self care advice, which they can follow thereby avoiding an expensive visit to a health care professional. More serious matters are assessed by a professional and users are subsequently issued with treatment advice or recommended to another branch within the NHS.

Initiated in 1997, NHS Direct sites started taking calls from the public in March 1998.

External link:
National Health Service (NHS)