Plug to be pulled on NHS Direct next year

The service said in July it was pulling out of contracts to provide the 111 non-emergency number service due to financial problems.

NHS Direct initially won 11 of the 46 regional contracts for the 111 service, covering 34 per cent of the population.

It pulled out of two services and said in July the remaining nine were “financially unsustainable”.

The 111 service is run by different organisations in each area, including private companies and ambulance trusts, which will now take on NHS Direct’s work.

In a statement, NHS Direct said its 111 staff and call centres were due to transfer to five ambulance trusts by the end of November.

NHS Direct used to be paid more than £20 per call when it ran the old 0845 number, which will cease in March. The payment for the 111 service is £7 to £9 per call.

The statement said: “No patient services will be affected by the board’s decision, as we expect each of the services that NHS Direct is commissioned to provide beyond March 2014 to be transferred to other organisations, together with the staff who provide them.”

The organisation said it would launch a formal consultation with staff on Monday but “it is hoped that the number of redundancies arising will be kept to a minimum through transfer and redeployment of staff to other organisations”.

It said the decision to close had been reached in agreement with the NHS Trust Development Authority and NHS England.

Chair of NHS Direct Joanne Shaw said “The closure of NHS Direct marks the end of its 15 years of continuous innovation, during which time it has led the world in remote health assessment, advice and information.”