The coalition government has confirmed plans to scrap the NHS Direct helpline in England and replace it with a cheaper option. People who have used the service have been sending their reaction to the ...

NHS Direct has denied that any decision has been made to close call centres after Unison warned that hundreds of jobs were under threat at the health advice service. The union said 24 out of 30 sites ...

The telephone health advice service, NHS Direct, is to close most of its call centres with the loss of hundreds of nursing jobs, unions have claimed. The service is being replaced from next April by ...

Medical helpline NHS Direct is to be scrapped as the new non-emergency phone number 111 is rolled out, it was disclosed today. Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham criticised the move and the manner ...

Patients calling the NHS Direct helpline are being put at risk by long delays and nurses who miss crucial danger signals, according to researchers. An undercover study in March shows that the service ...

A political row has erupted after the health secretary was accused of making "a significant U-turn" over plans to scrap NHS Direct, the popular phone helpline, in the face of widespread public anger.

Patients ringing NHS Direct are paying up to £3.70 for an average call, it has emerged. They are charged up to 41p a minute to ring the 0845 helpline, which campaigners describe as a ‘rip-off’ on the ...

Joanne Shaw has been appointed as chair of NHS Direct to lead the trust for the next four years. Joanne Shaw has been appointed as chair of NHS Direct to lead the trust for the next four years. Joanne ...

NHS Direct was set up in the late 1990s as a phone advice service NHS Direct - one of the most recognisable names in the NHS - will be closed down in England next year. The organisation, which is an ...

NHS Direct is proposed in the NHS White Paper. Its aim is "to provide people at home with easier and faster advice and information about health, illness, and the NHS, so that they are better able to ...

NHS Direct saved my life. I was 39 at the time and had a really bad headache. I'd only had it for about 10 minutes but it was incredibly painful and kept getting worse. My wife rang NHS Direct and ...