• Home > 
• Our Services > 
• NHS 111 > 

NHS Pathways information for patients and service users

NHS Pathways

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, which offers the specific clinical skills needed within the time frame required.

NHS Pathways can be used in any emergency or urgent care setting. This will reduce delay, improve the patient experience and eliminate additional steps in the process of providing access to care, avoiding inappropriate use of NHS resources. 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, GP out-of-hours and NHS 111. This ensures 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, first time.

NHS Pathways was developed and is maintained by a group of NHS Clinicians with extensive experience of both urgent and emergency care provision, and also of clinical decision support tools. This includes GPs, nurses, paramedics and many more. NHS Pathways is under constant review and direction by the clinical community via the independent National Clinical Governance Group. This group is chaired by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and is made up of representatives from those Royal Colleges with an interest in urgent and emergency care, College of Emergency Medicine (CEM), British Medical Association (BMA) and other organisations involved in the delivery of urgent and emergency care.

For further information on NHS Pathways please click on the following links:-

How Does NHS Pathways Work

Training

Benefits

Directory Of Services

Frequently Asked Questions

Myth Buster