Facts and Figures

NHS Direct is a confidential 24-hour health advice and information service. Originally established as a three-site telephone clinical advice pilot in 1998, NHS Direct is now a world leader in its field and provides a comprehensive range of easily accessible e-health information services to the public in England.

NHS Direct currently handles over six million telephone calls per year.

The website has expanded rapidly on the back of widespread and high quality access to broadband. In 2006 we expect to have 14 million visitors to our online services.

The digital TV channel launched with digital satellite TV in December 2004 has over 3,000 pages of information on about 500 health topics, making it one of the largest interactive digital TV services of its kind.