Table 1.

Effect of NHS Direct on activity of other services, 1998–2001.

	GP cooperatives	Ambulance services (analysed at health authority level)	Emergency departments
Services surveyed (n)	297	109	239
Services with complete data for analysis (n)	104	75	170
Total patient contacts in 4-year period (n)	14 159 752	10 447 032	35 516 281
Mean contacts per service per 24 hours	94	217	146
Underlying trend % per annum	0.84	4.5	0.70
Change in trend (95% CI)	−8.7 (−10.0 to −7.5)	0.26 (−0.49 to 1.0)	0.60 (0.06 to 1.1)
Step effect (95% CI)	−3.1 (−4.5 to −1.5)	−1.4 (−2.3 to −0.44)	0.86 (0.19 to 1.5)

CI = confidence interval.