NHS Direct Xmas stats confirm rise of the web

A sign of the times - calls to NHS Direct were down over the Christmas period but visits to the website more than compensated.

NHS Direct today reported that it received nearly a quarter of a million phone calls during the ten day Christmas holiday period. This was 15% lower than last year - but the decrease was more than made up for by a 30% increase in visitors to the website www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk which received more than 340,000 visits over the same period.

The data suggests that more and more people are choosing to access health information via the internet. Malehealth, the MHF's health information website for men has seen its number of unique vistors rised from 65,000 per month during the last audit period to 84,000 for the first half on 2006 - also an increaqse of nearly 30%.

The busiest days for phone calls were Saturdays 23 and 30 December with nearly 35,000 calls each day. Boxing Day is traditionally the busiest day of the holiday period but in a change to the historical trend, the week-ends were busier this year.

The current NHS Direct Patient Enquiries Top Ten is 

1. Abdominal Pain
2. Dental Tooth Jaw
3. Pain
4. Cough
5. Vomiting
6. Toothache
7. Sore Throat
8. Chest Pain
9. Diarrhoea
10. Ear Ache
11. Fever Toddler (Age 1-4 years).