NORTH Devon residents will be amongst the first in the county to use the new free single NHS number for all their non emergency health needs.

NHS 111 replaces the previous NHS Direct and replaces GP out of hours numbers from October 1, in North Devon.

GP practices will now be changing their answer phone messages to direct patients to call 111 when their surgery is closed.

Anyone ringing NHS Direct will also hear a recorded message advising them to redial 111 instead.

The call-handling aspects of these out of hours GP calls currently being provided by Devon Doctors will be gradually migrated over to the NHS 111 service between October 2013 and April next year for the rest of Devon. However the clinical services for out of hours will still be provided by Devon Doctors. Only the number has changed.

NHS 111 is a free to use service and is available 24-hours-a-day, 365 days a year.

• See next issue for more information on 111 in North Devon.