Impact of NHS Direct on general practice consultations during the winter of 1999-2000: analysis of routinely collected data

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The impact of NHS Direct on other primary care services in the United Kingdom has been the subject of recent debate.1 A hospital bed crisis occurred in the winter of 1999-2000, but according to routine primary care surveillance systems the incidence of influenza-like illness did not reach epidemic proportions (as conventionally described). 2 3 Considerable medical and media interest was given to influenza activity during this “millennium” winter.4 There was speculation that there was a genuine influenza epidemic but that people were telephoning NHS Direct and not seeking help from their general practitioner, resulting in an artificially low incidence of influenza-like illness. At the time there was partial coverage of England and Wales by NHS Direct; we therefore used this “natural experiment” to assess whether the introduction of NHS Direct had any impact on episodes of influenza-like illness and other cases of respiratory infections seen by general practitioners. …