NHS Direct puts health advice online

UK Health Secretary Alan Milburn today took the government's NHS Direct programme online, allowing people to access NHS Services on the Internet for the first time. He also announced an expansion of the present phone-based scheme to cover 65 per cent of the country.

The Web site will provide an automatic diagnosis of 20 common ailments, general health information as well as links to vetted health information sites. The back-end for the service was provided by IXL at a cost of £750,000.

The government intends to invest a further £80m in NHS Direct as a whole over the next year, opening new regional call centres and giving full national coverage by the end of 2000.

The move is seen as an attempt to deflect demand for health services away from overworked GP's surgeries. However Paul Jenkins, NHS Direct project manager said that it isn't just about saving money.

"What we're about is improving access to information and advice so that people make more appropriate use of health services. If a corollary of that is saving money in other parts of the NHS, then that's great, but that's not the main objective," Jenkins explained.

He also said that the government had planned to introduce a fully interactive service, where users could email health problems for professional diagnosis. But it is holding back its plans at present because of fears over patient confidentiality and time scales for response.

Grant Kelly GP, former head of the BMA's Information Technology Sub-Committee, said the move is an admission from the government that health services are overstretched, and the free Internet service won't lessen demand.

He also criticised the government for using the Internet as a gimmick: "The site gives information, not knowledge - it is the wrong use of technology."