Klondyke sorry to disagree with you but its my experience, and many others upstream from the Thames from London that NHSD ( NHS Direct a form of Nurse led Telephone advice service ) are about as much use as a chocolate tea-pot! So many of my patients say they have spoken to NHS Direct and have mentioned the word 'chest' and 'pain' in the same paragraph only to find two ambo bods at their front door. Or they tell the nice nurse that they had an angina attack 10 years ago but now they have a painful wrist. Only to get big yellow ambulance with accompanying crew with a dispatch code that states the call has come from 'a third party caller- not with patient'. They are often referred to here as NHS Re-Direct.