On Line Primary Health Care

Abstract

Primary health care provided via a telephone service allows parents ready access to health services and health information. This paper reports the findings of a survey of 4169 users of a 24 hour Child and Youth Health Telephone Advice Service. The purpose was to establish baseline data of parents who telephoned. It sought to determine how often parents rang, why they used the service in preference to other services, the reasons for telephoning and details about the caller and the child they phoned about, as well as use of the service by country parents. The results highlighted that the service is primarily used by parents of children under 12 months of age and the main reasons for phoning were for information and advice regarding feeding, sleeping and illness. Results also showed a higher usage of Telephone Advice by parents living in higher socio-economic areas and a corresponding lower use in lower socio-economic areas. It was evident that parents preferred to use the telephone service because of ease of access and not having to make an appointment. Some parents used the service as their only source of child health information.