£2 million grant to explore the role of NHS Direct

The way NHS Direct assists people with long term health conditions could be transformed thanks to a £2million grant awarded by the National Institute for Health Research to a team of medical experts. The research team, which is a partnership between NHS Direct and the Universities of Bristol, Sheffield, Manchester and Southampton and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, will undertake a five year research programme to find out the type of services that people with long term conditions (LTCs) would like NHS Direct to provide. The researchers will look at the types of people who would find this most useful and then develop suitable services and test whether they work. The research programme will focus on patients at high risk of having a heart attack or stroke and patients with depression, as examples of two different types of long term condition. The researchers will review all the best international evidence available about the role of `telehealth´ – services based on technologies such as the internet and the telephone to improve care for people with LTCs. They will interview people with LTCs about ways in which NHS Direct could help them to look after themselves and also interview health professionals about how it could help them manage LTCs. Patients at high risk of stroke or heart attack and patients with depression will also be asked about difficulties they have accessing care, their needs, and the types of care they would like from NHS Direct.