NHS 24 is the name of a confidential health advice and information service provided by NHS Scotland. It is the equivalent to the NHS Direct scheme in England and NHS Direct Wales, allowing people who feel unwell or those caring for them to obtain advice if it is not convenient or possible to wait until they can visit their General Practitioner when the practice is next open. It is not intended as a substitute for obtaining an emergency ambulance service via 999.
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The service can be used in more than one way:-
This enables a diagnosis to be made without assistance by answering a series of questions after accessing the main http://www.nhs24.com web page and selecting the NHS Self-help guide option. Users will be given one of three final results :-
The Internet service also provides access to an NHS Health Encyclopaedia which gives information on illnesses, conditions, tests and treatment and to Pharmacy Opening Times throughout Scotland.
The internet information is used under licence from the UK Department of Health and is based on (thus not necessarily identical to) the content displayed by the English service NHS Direct.
08454 24 24 24
This is the normal telephone number for most callers who are able to use a telephone without difficulty. A translation service [1] is provided for a number of languages for which leaflets are issued which instruct callers to tell the NHS 24 staff :-
18001 08454 24 24 24
At the end of the consultation, NHS 24 will contact the Scottish Ambulance Service if necessary.
Instructions for use of the service by non-English speakers are available on the website or in paper form by calling 0141 435 3901[1] .
NHS24 is controlled by the NHS 24 Board[2]. The Board is a Special Health Board created in 2001 by the (then) Scottish Executive using powers under the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978.