The North East of England is currently trialling a new health line telephone number – 111 – to help those who need non-emergency medical treatment.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Care Trusts are piloting the scheme which will allow people concerned about health matters to dial 111 instead of the emergency 999.  The trial will expand to Luton, Lincolnshire and Nottingham areas and is mooted to replace the NHS Direct service if it is successful.

Many of the calls to the 999 emergency service – about 50% – do not actually need an emergency response and this new number will deal with this and allow emergency calls to be prioritised.  Those who do use the 111 number for an emergency, however, will have an ambulance dispatched to them.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley indicated the need to improve access to urgent health services and said that the 111 number, to run alongside the 999 emergency number, will simplify best serve NHS clients.

The health line provides health advice, information about local out of hours GPs, walk in centres for medical treatment, emergency dentists and 24 hour pharmacies.