PEOPLE phoning Sydney's overstretched hospital emergency departments will have their inquiries automatically diverted to a call centre staffed by registered nurses.
From Tuesday callers will have their symptoms assessed over the phone. The nurses will advise whether callers should go to the hospital, seek an appointment with their GP or take some other action.
Health Minister Reba Meagher will announce the plan today as part of a nationwide revamp of the way emergency departments are used.
The diversion of calls from Sydney emergency departments is the first stage of NSW's link to healthdirect, the new national health call centre network.
As part of the plan, people will be given health advice on everything from treating head lice in children to broken bones and suspected cancer.
It does not replace the existing triple-0 number for medical emergencies, but the call centre nurses can alert ambulances if necessary.
The healthdirect phone service will be rolled out across the state from October. The number will be publicised and promoted so people can phone the centre directly.
Staff will have access to a comprehensive database allowing them to direct callers to local services such as children's health clinics and breast cancer screening services.
Ms Meagher said emergency department staff would never refuse treatment but their primary role was to treat patients with life-threatening or serious conditions.
"People who don't need emergency treatment can be treated more effectively in their community - and healthdirect is part of that," she said.
"When fully operational, the call centre will provide people with localised health information and advice to assist them to make an appropriate, informed decision about where they should go for treatment."
Latest Health Department statistics show 163,705 people attended the state's emergency departments last month, with only 60 per cent needing urgent treatment.
Last year, 2.3million people went to an emergency department in NSW - an 8per cent increase on the previous year.
A comprehensive study of people attending emergency departments found most people admitted they did not really need to be there, but said hospitals were more convenient than general practitioners.
Of those who attended emergency departments 44 per cent had conditions that could be treated by a GP; that figure has been increasing by 6 per cent each year.
Emergency departments were being used as a substitute for other treatment options, the study found.
Linda McQueen, chairwoman of General Practice NSW, which represents more than 7300 GPs, said anything that helped patients gain access to the right care at the right time was a good initiative.
"Sometimes patients don't know whether to go to hospital or wait overnight and see their GP in the morning," she said.
The new service should complement, not replace, existing services, Dr McQueen said.
