Advice on phoneline for ‘acute non-urgent’ care expected later in year

The Minister for Health will be provided with advice later this year on the potential establishment of a phoneline for acute non-urgent needs.

In August 2024, HIQA announced it would complete a health technology assessment (HTA) on establishing a phoneline to address acute non-urgent medical care needs. This was on foot of a request from the HSE. The telephone service would enable people to speak with a trained operator who would triage the caller and provide self-care advice or direct them to the appropriate healthcare services.

A HIQA spokesperson said its advice to the Minister and HSE is expected to be available following completion of the HTA.

A draft copy of the HTA is scheduled to be published for public consultation in April. The finalised version is due to be released between July and September.

The Authority’s spokesperson said that the perspective of emergency medicine consultants is being taken into account during this process.

“This HTA considers the impact of introducing an alternative telephone pathway on existing publicly-funded health services, including the impact on emergency departments.”

The spokesperson confirmed that a multidisciplinary expert advisory group has been convened to inform interpretation of the evidence and development of the advice. This group includes HSE representatives from national clinical programmes for emergency medicine and acute operations.

“This group is meeting three times over the course of the project… [and] comprises people from a range of stakeholder organisations, including clinical and public health experts.”

The HTA aims to assess the epidemiology and burden of disease associated with acute non-urgent care needs in the pre-hospital setting and it will also assess current international practice.

Presently, when primary care services and local injury units cannot be readily accessed, people with acute non-urgent care needs who are unwilling or unable to wait either go to a hospital emergency department or call 112/999.

According to HIQA, this situation has contributed to an increased burden on emergency services and departments. There may also be people who require care in the emergency department, but who defer attending as they do not think this level of care is necessary, or because they expect long waiting times.