Now - it has been hailed as a cornerstone of the government's big plan for the health service but NHS Direct was today under attack. A survey by the consumer magazine Which said hotline staff often missed potential emergencies and referred the wrong patients to already stretched casualty departments. Advice on your aches and pains at the end of the telephone 24 hours a day. But NHS Direct has been widely criticised since it came into being two years ago.
Doctors say that it has never been properly evaluated.
The magazine said that the service failed to establish that he had a history of heart problems. Or whether his condition was worsening. The nurses did find out that the woman's stomach pains were caused by her medication. But the academic who devised the safeguards for NHS Direct today criticised the research's methodology. The main aim of NHS Direct was always to take the pressure off other parts of the health service.