NHS Direct Wales is a 24-hour telephone and internet health advice service provided by
NHS Wales to enable people to obtain advice when use of the national
emergency telephone number
Most public switched telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number (sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or the emergency services number) that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assista ...
(999 or 112) does not seem to be appropriate but there is some degree of urgency; it also functions as a confidential advice service for some medical matters which a patient might be reluctant to discuss with their own
General Practitioner (GP) and has subsidiary helplines for specific health matters such as
human papillomavirus (HPV).
It does not replace any of the existing emergency or non-emergency medical services but complements those already existing and enables callers who might not be fully able to diagnose themselves to be directed to care of an appropriate level of urgency, including transport to hospital if the diagnosis merits that action.
Organisation and history
This service was originally provided as part of
NHS Direct
NHS Direct was the health advice and information service provided by the National Health Service (NHS), established in March 1998. The nurse-led telephone information service provided residents and visitors in England with healthcare advice 24 ho ...
covering both England and Wales until it was transferred to Welsh control in June 2001. On 1 April 2007 management of NHS Direct Wales was transferred from
Swansea NHS Trust {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022
Swansea NHS Trust was an NHS Trust covering Swansea, south Wales. It was established on 1 April 1999 and ceased to exist on 1 April 2008 when it merged with Bro Morgannwg NHS Trust to form the Abertawe Bro Morgannw ...
to the
Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust
The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth GIG Gwasanaethau Ambiwlans Cymru) is the national ambulance service for Wales. It was established on 1 April 1998 and has 3,400 staff providing ambulance and related services to the ...
.
Contact methods
Telephone
The telephone number for NHS Direct Wales was 0845 46 47. All Welsh health boards have now migrated to the NHS 111 service.
NHS Direct Wales also has integrated services with many of the
A&E departments in Wales where symptomatic callers phoning their A&E department will be transferred to NHS Direct for clinical triage. The service also fronts many of the helplines on behalf of Public Health dealing with issues such as the
cryptosporidia
Cryptosporidiosis, sometimes informally called crypto, is a parasitic disease caused by '' Cryptosporidium'', a genus of protozoan parasites in the phylum Apicomplexa. It affects the distal small intestine and can affect the respiratory tract ...
outbreak in North Wales, HPV, smoking etc.
The
textphone service is on 0845 606 4647.
Access via
RNID
The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), known as Action on Hearing Loss from 2011 to 2020, is a charitable organization working on behalf of the UK's 9 million people who are deaf or have hearing loss.
History
The Royal National I ...
Typetalk is on 18001 0845 4647.
Callers receive a recorded announcement describing the services available and when appropriate will be transferred to a call handler with an option for Welsh language who will take their details and pass them on to another person with relevant skills or will arrange for them to be called back within three hours. If a problem appears serious enough then an ambulance will be sent. Callers can stay anonymous if they wish.
Internet
The NHS Direct Wales website provides a gateway to a number of resources in English,
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
and other languages including a health encyclopaedia and the locations of GP surgeries, dentists, pharmacists, opticians, and other services.
The website does not provide an online diagnosis for current symptoms, but you can use the online enquiry service to ask a non-symptomatic question about anything else related to health, e.g. questions about health costs, questions about how to make a complaint, questions about what travel vaccinations are required.
References
External links
*{{Official website, http://www.nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk
NHS Direct Wales Local Services Search
Health in Wales
Health informatics in the United Kingdom
NHS Wales
Crisis hotlines