NHS Direct is the name of a telephone and online service provided by the National Health Service in the UK. It was introduced in England and Wales in 2003 and 'rolled out' into Scotland (where it is called NHS24) in 2004.
It used to be fairly common for patients in the UK to call an out-of-hours line at their own surgery, and have a GP visit them at home. NHS Direct and NHS24 telephone lines are staffed by nurses and other health professionals, and are intended to be more efficient than the out-of-hours visiting service. They do not, however, replace the British emergency service number 999.
External links
NHS Direct
NHS24
