NHS Direct

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many calls NHS Direct has received in each week since 7 May 2009; and how long on average it took for such calls to be answered in each such week. (291493)

The information requested is set out in the following table:

Week ending:	Calls received	Calls answered	Average answered delay (seconds)
9 May 2009	55,125	49,606	30.52
16 May 2009	128,474	120,351	18.44
23 May 2009	119,386	111,942	23.14
30 May 2009	117,332	108,687	26.33
6 June 2009	107,345	97,438	33.73
13 June 2009	109,738	99,925	29.26
20 June 2009	105,460	92,304	53.85
27 June 2009	115,408	93,399	94.45
4 July 2009	163,429	98,735	284.83
11 July 2009	186,058	92,106	473.43
18 July 2009	201,766	84,342	463.79
25 July 2009	176,382	88,423	436.67
1 August 2009	127,184	99,923	126.74
8 August 2009	113,442	95,481	83.27
15 August 2009	112,576	99,184	58.60
22 August 2009	104,152	94,073	45.22
29 August 2009	103,014	95,561	31.56
5 September 2009	109,577	99,218	41.39
12 September 2009	99,494	89,836	40.25
Total	2,355,342	1,810,534	—
Note: It should be noted that this information only refers to calls made to 0845 46 47, and not any other services provided by NHS Direct.

Volume 497: debated on Wednesday 14 October 2009