title: Community pharmacy and NHS Direct in new team initiative.
abstract: Over the past five years, NHS Direct has handled over 18 million calls and become one of the world's principal providers of telephone-based health care advice. Research has shown that almost six per cent of callers seek advice about medicines and approximately 40 per cent of responses include advice about medicines. It was as a result of this identified need that the community pharmacy project was born. It has since been rolled out across all NHS Direct sites. The project aims to provide a framework to enable NHS Direct advisers to offer safe and appropriate information and referral.
authors.affiliation: NHS Direct, London.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D004346:Drug Information Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D005544:Forecasting; D015277:Hotlines / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D008131:London; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration; D010594:Pharmacies / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration; D013222:State Medicine