FROM April 6, the people of Bolton will have access to a 24 hour confidential helpline designed to take the worry out of healthcare.

NHS Direct will cover Greater Manchester and address the needs of the 2.5 million people who live there.

Callers can dial one local call rate number - 0845 4647 - to speak to one of 10 trained operators who will take basic details.

Then, callers from the Bolton and Wigan areas will be transferred to a satellite call centre in Landmark House, Bolton, where they will be advised by a nurse with specific local knowledge.

All other callers will be transferred to one of 22 nurse advisers working from the headquarters of Greater Manchester Ambulance Service at Ladybridge Hall on Chorley New Road.

Landmark House is the first satellite centre established in the Greater Manchester region, but the partners involved in the launch of NHS Direct anticipate it will be the first of many across the area.

Nurses manning the service have access to a database of information about healthcare providers in the Greater Manchester area.

They can advise callers on treatment for minor illness and injury when appropriate.

If the nurse feels medical intervention is needed she can either route the call to the Paramedic Emergency Control Centre or suggest a GP is called out.

A spokeswoman for NHS Direct said: "This service is partially aimed at reducing the number of inappropriate calls to GPs.

"It is in no way intended as a replacement for the GP out-of-hours call service, rather we're hoping the two will complement each other."

The service will be run by GMS NHS Trust, Bolton District Medical Services, Wigan Metro Medical Services, Community Healthcare Bolton NHS Trust, South Manchester University NHS Trust, Central Manchester Healthcare Trust and Healthwise, supported by the Association of Greater Manchester.

The service will be headed up by Joanne Royle, who joined NHS Direct from Manchester Royal Infirmary where she was Directorate Manager for Specialist Surgery.

Before that she was service manager for Accident and Emergency.

Joanne, a qualified nurse, has more than 15 years' experience working in accident and emergency departments and was part of a specific team of medics sent out to help casualties in the Lockerbie disaster.

A multi-lingual translation service will be available for up to 180 different languages and as is the case with all 999 calls, the calls to NHS Direct will be recorded.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.