NHS Direct is anxious to build on its experience in providing remote care,
and is looking for Pilot sites in England.

This prospectus sets out the services that NHS
Direct will offer in 2005/06. It highlights a number
of areas where NHS Direct can assist Primary
Care Trusts (PCTs) in meeting their key service
objectives. The prospectus has been developed
by taking account of feedback from PCTs and
Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) during the first
year of the new commissioning arrangements.
The key areas in which NHS Direct can
work with PCTs in 2005/06 include Long-term conditions.

Long-term conditions
24. About 60% of adults report some form of
long-term or chronic health problem that can be
controlled. Helping people with such long-term
conditions (LTCs) to make the most of their health
is a key objective for the NHS and the recent
Department of Health policy paper 'Supporting
People with Long-Term Conditions' highlighted this.
25. NHS Direct can contribute to this objective
in a number of ways, utilising available staff,
skills and infrastructure, and working with
partners to enhance local services cost-effectively.
There are several options available for which
we would seek partners to pilot in 2005/06.
Using its infrastructure
” NHS Direct has invested in high quality
information and telephony technology to
support its 24-hour provision of health
information and advice. Maximum call volumes
occur in the 'out-of-hours' period. This means
that some of this infrastructure is potentially
available during day-time hours, to host other
health service partners who wish to directly
provide telephony or web-based services for
the management of LTCs, thus saving them
major new investment in such facilities.
Service provision
” NHS Direct can provide several elements of
the service required by patients with long-term
conditions. In all cases, NHS Direct will work
with partner agencies to provide an integrated
programme of care to maximise the health of
people with LTCs, and reduce pressure on other
primary or secondary care services. These direct
services could potentially be provided either through
an outbound service, where calls are originated by
NHS Direct to a specified subset of individuals with
LTCs, providing proactive information or advice:
or inbound, where an NHS Direct number is made
available to a specified subset of individuals with
LTCs, who call on the basis of self-identified need.
26. NHS Direct already provides symptomatic
advice and high quality health information to a
substantial number of patients with long-term
conditions, through the 0845 4647 number,
and a wide range of other media. Development
of specific inbound services will require close
working with local providers, but could again
be developed on a pilot basis in 2005/06.
27. NHS Direct's new media services (the NHS
Direct Online website and NHS Direct Interactive
on digital TV) also provide particular opportunities
for supporting patients in the management of
long-term conditions. We would be keen to
develop these further to meet PCT requirements
to support people with LTCs. NHS Direct would
welcome nominations of potential pilots from PCTs
that could be jointly developed during 2005/06.
28. In light of the evaluation of pilot services, a
range of services in this area could be available
to PCTs to commission as an enhanced service
as part of the 2006/07 Service Prospectus.
NHS Direct will work with PCTs and other
stakeholders to identify ways in which it
can contribute to local plans for supporting
people with long-term conditions.

Please contact me if you would be interested in further discussions

I am happy to email a copy of the new Prospectus to any one who is
interested.

Best wishes



Dr Nicholas Robinson
eHealth & Telecare Adviser
NGS Direct New Media
07867 785 394
nicholas.robinson@... (Blackberry)