A new hotline number for people in Sussex with health concerns could be the answer to easing the burden on the county's emergency services.

NHS Direct was launched in Sussex earlier this week providing a third option to phoning your GP or dialling 999.

The confidential call service provides patients with expert medical advice over the phone. It is manned by experienced nurses and is open 24 hours a day, every day.

An elderly patient with chest pains would normally automatically rely on accident and emergency departments and ambulance help, but hospital chiefs hope the 24-hour advice line will now offer a real alternative.

With fears of an impending crisis within Sussex Ambulance Service due to a combination of staff stress, exhaustion and falling morale, its launch in the county is timely.

Steve Tilling, Sussex Ambulance Service communications centre manager, said just 60 per cent of calls received there were serious enough to warrant an ambulance.

He said he hoped NHS Direct would act as a filter to those with less serious calls.

Callers can use NHS Direct to get advice on who if anyone they should contact for treatment, and how urgently they should do it, based on the symptoms they describe and the information they supply.

They can also request sensible health advice on more general queries such as why a particular medicine has been prescribed.

And the hotline will also be able to provide general information such as the location of the nearest late night pharmacist.

Steve Phoenix, director of performance management at East Sussex Brighton and Hove health authority, said the launch of NHS Direct in Sussex was good news.

He said: "The reality is we live in a world where people seek health advice where ever they can get it, this is reflected in the rising number of internet sites devoted to giving health advice.

"NHS Direct is a part of a considered, carefully thought through national initiative and is another way for patients to obtain good quality advice.

This, particularly as we get into winter, is very important.

"One of the benefits of NHS Direct is that it is instant. Many people who visit their GPs go for relatively routine advice which they could easily get either by phone or on the NHS Direct website. Instead of having to wait for an appointment the following day or later in the day they can get the advice instantly."

However Dr Nigel Higson, who has been at GP at Goodwood Court Surgery in Hove for 15-years, believes that services like this will have a detrimental effect on doctor and patient relationships and will mean patients are less likely to get the treatment they need.

He said: "While it will help me cut down on out of hours work as patients will call NHS Direct rather than the surgery this is a short term benefit. In the long term it will benefit neither the NHS or patients.

"Initiatives like this, along with walk in treatment centres, are fragmenting primary care. GPs normally see their patients four or five times a year and a relationship develops. This along with access to patient records enables a GP to obtain what is right for a patient from a holistic viewpoint.

"For example a GP knows if there have been illnesses in the family, or if a patient has any psychiatric problems. While NHS Direct does provide a service, it is going to detract from this, from primary care.

"With the fragmentation of the health service patients can shop around until they get the treatment they think they need rather than what is right for them. It is much easier to prescribe antibiotics than it is to get to the crux of a problem."

Sussex residents are some of the last to have access to NHS Direct.

The call service was launched as a pilot scheme in 1999 serving 40 per cent of the country, and this was later extended to 60 per cent.

From the end of November it will serve the whole of England but while it continues to be phased in it has not escaped criticism.

Earlier this year a study by the magazine Health Which? said potential emergencies were being missed while other patients were being unnecessarily referred to already overstretched accident departments.

Only time will tell if it works in Sussex and the affects it has on the ambulance service, GPs, and, most importantly, patients.

To ring NHS Direct, call 0845 4647. All calls are confidential, charged at the local rate, and recorded for patient safety.