NHS Direct versus general practice based triage for same day appointments in primary care: cluster randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVE To assess the relative effects on consultation workload and costs of off-site triage by NHS Direct for patients requesting same day appointments compared with usual on-site nurse telephone triage in general practice. DESIGN Cluster randomised controlled trial. SETTING Three primary care sites in York, England. PARTICIPANTS 4703 patients: 2452 with practice based triage, 2251 with NHS Direct triage. All consecutive patients making requests for same day appointments during study weeks were eligible for the trial. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Type of consultation after request for same day appointment (telephone, appointment, or visit); time taken for consultation; service use during the month after same day contact; costs of same day, follow up, and emergency care. RESULTS Patients in the NHS Direct group were less likely to have their call resolved by a nurse and were more likely to have an appointment with a general practitioner. Mean total time per patient in the NHS Direct group was 7.62 minutes longer than in the practice based group. Costs were greater in the NHS Direct group—£2.88 (£0.88 to £4.87) per patient triaged—as a result of the difference between the groups in proportions of patients at each final point contact after triage. CONCLUSIONS External management of requests for same day appointments by nurse telephone triage through NHS Direct is possible but comes at a higher cost than practice nurse delivered triage in primary care. If NHS Direct could achieve the same proportions of consultation types as practice based triage, costs would be comparable