NHS 24 gets a call every two seconds
THE out-of-hours health advice service in Scotland received one call every two seconds in peak times this Christmas, figures revealed yesterday.
The four-day festive season is a particularly busy time for NHS 24 as GPs and pharmacies are closed.
This year, the service answered 37,590 calls for the four days from Christmas day to last Sunday.
It comes as the NHS in Scotland and across the rest of the UK deals with a surge in patients with flu.
Dr George Crooks, the medical director of NHS 24, said the organisation had been "extremely busy" over Christmas and thanked staff for their efforts to meet patients' needs.
"We received a significant number of calls from people contacting the service with flu-like symptoms," he said.
Last year, NHS 24 dealt with 33,000 calls during the Christmas period.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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