A qualitative exploration of staff views towards the uptake of NHS Direct

• Staff views are captured to examine the barriers and facilitators that impact on the uptake of NHS Direct.
• This research has revealed that there are a core number of reasons why people do and do not engage with NHS Direct.
• Policy makers should focus on supporting the public with increased knowledge and confidence in using telephone based healthcare systems to increase uptake.

ObjectivesTo explore the views of staff to examine the underlying factors that may contribute to the variation of uptake to NHS Direct.MethodsAdopting a qualitative approach two focus groups were carried out with staff (n=13); which included registered nurse advisors and health advisors at two NHS Direct sites: Bristol and Manchester in England. Findings were analysed using framework analysis [1].ResultsStaff views for explaining reasons why people do and do not engage with NHS Direct focused on themes centred on ‘knowledge of NHS Direct’, ‘attitudes towards NHS Direct’, ‘the cost of using NHS Direct’, ‘time/speed of using NHS Direct’ and finally ‘satisfaction with the service’.ConclusionThis research has explored staff views of the barriers and facilitators that may impact on the uptake NHS Direct, which can help enable the development of future promotional campaigns that can target particular sections of the population to encourage use of telephone based healthcare services.