How helpful is NHS Direct? Postal survey of callers

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Abstract
With approval of local ethics committees, we sampled 350 consecutive callers at each site during one week in September 1998, giving a total of 1050 callers. The sampled period covered Saturday to Wednesday. A questionnaire about callers' experiences and views of NHS Direct was posted within one week of the call, with up to two reminders. A total of 719 questionnaires were completed by callers and 32 were not received by callers, giving a response rate of 71% (719/1018) with rates of 66%, 65%, and 81% for the individual sites; 81% (579/719) of respondents made written comments. The median age of respondents was 35 years (interquartile range 29 to 47) and 80% (567/711) were women. Most (684, 95%) said that they had spoken to a nurse for advice. Of these 684, only 673 gave details of the advice: eight (1%) reported being diverted to emergency services, 138 (21%) were advised to contact accident and emergency, 136 (20%) a general practitioner immediately, 85 (13%) a general practitioner in the next 24 hours, 80 (12%) a general practitioner at the next opportunity, 50 (7%) another service, and 176 (26%) to self treat.