NHS Direct Wales, Quarter Ending March 2007

NHS Direct Wales is a 24-hour help line staffed by nurses offering confidential advice about health, illness and the NHS. NHS Direct Wales answers calls in English, Welsh and, via language line, over 120 other languages. NHS Direct Wales continues to expand the range of services offered in addition to the main health helpline (0845 46 47), which now include GP out of hours services for 3 Local Health Boards, triage calls transferred from A&E departments, and a dental helpline for 13 Local Health Boards. In addition NHS Direct Wales provides ad hoc information lines to support public health campaigns.

Data shown represent the number of calls queued to NHS Direct Wales excluding abandoned or repeat calls. Also, from Quarter ending June 2004, the number of calls answered are shown. 'Queued calls' are calls where the caller has listened to all of the welcome messaging and waited on the line to be answered. 'Answered calls' are calls in which the caller speaks to someone.

Summary

• 97,200 calls were queued to NHS Direct Wales during the three-month period January 2007 to March 2007. This is a 5 per cent rise since the previous quarter. A year-on-year comparison shows a 15 per cent fall on the January to March quarter in 2005-06.
• 88,400 calls were answered by NHS Direct Wales during the three-month period January 2007 to March 2007. This is a 5 per cent rise since the previous quarter. A year-on-year comparison however, shows no significant change to the January to March quarter in 2005-06.
• During the 12-month period to March 2007, 391,100 calls were queued to the service; a fall of 5 per cent compared with the previous 12-month period. 352,700 calls were answered by the service; a rise of 8 per cent compared with the previous 12-month period.
• During the three-month period to March 2007, NHS Direct Wales answered more than 1,900 calls (out of more than 2,300 calls queued) from callers expressing a preference for the call to be taken in Welsh. This is an increase of 7 per cent on the same quarter in 2005-06 and accounted for approximately 2 per cent of all calls answered.
• More than 60,000 calls were queued to the 0845 service (Chart 1) and 37,100 calls to other NHS Direct Wales services, including GP Out of Hours services.

Further information can be found at the StatsWales website.

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 3598
E-mail: stats.healthinfo@wales.gsi.gov.uk