Funded by the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Health Services & Delivery Research Programme, members of HSR together with RAND Europe, who come together under the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research, are conducting an independent evaluation of the schemes using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data collection.

Some questions the study will examine include:

* How does a GP telephone triage approach affect patient experience and the use of primary and secondary care services?
* What is the impact of GP telephone triage on the nature of consultations for patients and staff, and how appropriate is this approach for hard-to-reach groups?
* What are the cost consequences of a telephone triage approach in general practice?

If the findings support this approach to telephone triage, our work will show how the approach could be rolled out more generally, what the potential barriers would be, and how they might be overcome.