Purpose The NHS Pathways and the Directory of Services core narrative has been designed to support NHS communications leads and/or project managers in explaining what is changing for patients and healthcare staff.

Background The pressures on ambulance services and EmergencyDepartments(ED) have been increasing and many of the patients that dial 999 for an ambulance or visit ED could be treated more appropriately in primary care.

Until now urgent and emergency care has been fragmented and disconnected as patients often don’t know where they should go when they have an urgent care need that is not life threatening. This has led to inconsistencies in the responses and treatment patients receive for various reasons. These include: preventing easy cross referral, the need to re-triage at each step using different clinical assessment tools, patients being referred to services that do not have the skills they require or patients simply not knowing where and how they can access urgent care and as a result dial 999.

NHS Pathways sets out to deliver a single clinical assessment tool that provides effective triage over the telephone in any setting taking calls from the public. This can include 999, NHS Direct, GP out-of-hours, NHS 111 and any other Single Point of Access number in place. This will ensure every patient accessing urgent and emergency care services is effectively triaged, reducing the need for them to repeat information and helping to make sure that they are directed to the right care at the right time.


What is it and how does it work? NHS Pathways is a suite of clinical assessment content for triaging telephone calls from the public, based on the symptoms they report when they call.


NHS Pathways enables a specially designed clinical assessment to be carried out by the trained person answering the call. Once the clinical assessment has been completed, a clinical skill set and a defined timescale will be identified for the patient.

At the end of the assessment, if an emergency ambulance is not required, an automatic search is carried out on the integrated Directory of Services to locate an appropriate service in the patient’s local area that offers the specific clinical skills needed within the time frame required.
  www.nhs.net

As the NHS has evolved, the range of NHS providers from the independent and third sectors offering NHS-commissioned services and requiring information management and technology (IM&T) integration has increased significantly.

Recognising the growing importance of these sectors to the NHS and the need for effective integration with NHS systems and applications, NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) introduced the NHS Business Partners programme (previously known as the Independent Sector Healthcare programme).

The programme provides a dedicated contact point within NHS CFH for both NHS commissioners and, where appropriate, their contracted healthcare providers and their system suppliers. It can:

provide advice and guidance on integrating with NHS systems and applications, tailored to the needs of commissioners and healthcare providers
and support providers and their system suppliers with achieving system compliance with NHS systems and service  www.nhs.net

 a comprehensive, easy to use guide to the service.  It has a search feature for easy access to the required information.  Find it in the 'Guidance' pages of the NHSmail portal at www.nhs.net

NHSmail mini guides - hard copy mini guides to the new service for both users and Local Organisation Administrators are available via the NHS Connecting for Health Publication Ordering Service.

• Download a Local Organisation Administrator mini guide (PDF, 2.63MB)
• Download a user mini guide (PDF, 2.53MB)

The NHSmail Guidance pages are packed full of information including policy and procedure, case studies and advice on utilising the full capabilities of the service, such as setting up automated SMS patient appointment reminders. You can access them without logging into your account as long as you're using an NHS connection:

• Go to www.nhs.net
• Click on 'Search Directory'
• Click on 'Guidance'

NHSmail helpdesk

The national NHSmail helpdesk is available 24 hours a day, 7 day a week, 365 days a year on 0333 200 1133, or you can email helpdesk@nhs.net 

According to the national and regional distribution of www.Nhs.net’s world web search volume, there is only the United Kingdom on the list and its search volume can reach 100%. In fact NHS implies National Health Service on the United Kingdom and it is a very popular and important service in the UK. At the same time it is very convenient to contact the medical staff if you have any healthy problem.

 Maybe the people who like travelling know what Thames Ditton is. Thames Ditton is a web service for ordering the inn when you travel outside. It was known by the travelers for its fastness and convenience. It is wise to add the Nhs.net service to Thames Ditton to let more and more people know the relevant situation on Nhs.net service.

Glasgow is on the second among the cities of Nhs.net’s web search. There is a intensive population in Scotland, which plays an important role in Nhs.net’s web search.. St Albans is the biggest and most typical city of the web search of Nhs.net service.

1. You should understand your responsibilities and what kind of use may constitute abuse of the service.
2. The data of computers and personnel shouldn't be put at risk.
3.You know the NHsmail service is provided to aid the provision of health and social care which should be the main use of it.
4. If you are a member of clinical staff you may use the NHSmail service to treat your private patients with your own professional codes of conduct.
5.All data in the NHSmail will be the property of it.
When use the NHSmail service you may have some responsibilities
You mustn't violate the law or regulations of the United Kingdom or any other country. Thay is to say you should be legal to use it.
Here are some occasions that you shouldn't use the NHSmail:
1) You mustn't use the NHSmail for commercial gain like unsolicited marketing, advertising and selling goods or services.
2) You must not attempt to interfere with the technical components, both hardware and software, of the NHSmail system in any way.
3)You mustn't use the NHSmail service when you haven't identified yourself honestly, accurately and completely.
If you want the detailed information please look it up at http://www.nhs.net.

I have told the benefits using NHSmail and now I will make a complement on NHSmail. Definitely what I am talking about is also from the Internet, books and other channels.
You may know:
Using NHSmail to limite the spread of infection in Liverpool.
NHS Sheffield makes the switch to NHSmail.
Lewisham trusts in NHSmail.
Weston Area Health NHS Trust migrates to NHSmail.
The contents above are organisation case studies of NHSmail.
You may also know:
NHSmail helps send automatic alerts when patients are admitted to hospital.
How Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is managing NHSmail leavers and joiners .
NHSmail enables cross-boundary working in London.
NHSmail helps Independent Midwives deliver better maternity care.
These are on case studies of NHSmail.

It is believed that nearly all people know something on NHSmail and it shows most of people choose to use NHSmail/www.nhs.net without consideration.Someone may be curious why use NHSmail rather than other email services. Here I will disclose the secret for the confused people.
1) NHSmail is a service which can make you feel safe for trans-missing some data like patient data, "restricted" status accredited by the government. No other email service can compare the safety with NHSmail.
2) NHSmail/www.nhs.net is a resilient service with two data centers which can be exchanged to work.
3) NHSmail is available everywhere over NHS N3 network and the internet.
4) NHSmail is a service that makes you can call someone for the whole day.
5) No matter to send a email or a SMS, for NHSmail which is free to use as there is no charge to you or to your organisation.
6) NHSmail has a function to manage your email,calender and personal contacts.
The contents above are very detailed which will help you to understand it.