Direct contact with a family doctor is now just a phone call away, 24-hours a day, for all Norwich Union Healthcare customers.
Direct contact with a family doctor is now just a phone call away, 24-hours a day, for all Norwich Union Healthcare customers.
The health insurer has teamed up with a new partner to launch a major expansion in its unique round-the-clock GP Helpline service.
The deal with experienced helpline company InfoGenie means that the Norwich Union Healthcare service - the first of its kind in the UK - will initially have the capacity to deal with 80,000 calls a year from its 550,000 private medical insurance customers.
The 24-hour helpline is available to corporate as well as individual customers, helping businesses to avoid unnecessary sickness absence.
All callers will have the choice of speaking to a GP about illness or to a nurse for general health information.
Customers can call the helpline as often as they want, giving them added value from their PMI policy without having to claim.
GPs from a dedicated 20-strong team answer the calls routed to them at any time of day or night, 365 days a year, assessing the needs of each caller and dealing with them accordingly.
This swift access to advice from a doctor will mean:
- Peace of mind for families
- People who want more time to talk to a doctor will benefit from unlimited, unrushed consultations
- Busy workers who don't want to waste time can establish if a trip to their GP is necessary before taking time off work
Tim Baker, commercial director of Norwich Union Healthcare, said: "Fast access to advice from a GP is a great benefit to everyone, from parents worried about a sick child to older people who want more time to discuss a health problem.
"It can prevent unnecessary trips to the doctor, saving time for both patients and their NHS GPs, and helping to ensure that the maximum possible healthcare resources are concentrated on those who need them most."
All GP-routed calls to the 24-hour-helpline are answered by a fully-qualified, specially telephone-trained GP who questions the patient and uses their answers to assess which of the following eight categories their call fits into:
- Emergency (immediate ambulance call-out)
- Urgent - seek immediate help at accident and emergency
- Seek help from GP services on the same day
- Seek help from GP services soon (within 48 hours)
- Normal non-urgent appointment with GP
- Self-care - patient given advice specific to their symptoms
- Advice or information given to patient
- Non-clinical enquiry
The 24-hour Helpline has been operating for two years, and the lessons learned from that have enabled the launch of the full-scale improved service in partnership with InfoGenie.
InfoGenie has offices in Berlin, Milan, Paris and Windsor and was successfully launched in a public offering on the German Neuer Markt in October 2000. The company specialises in supplying high-quality helplines both to the general public and the corporate customer, enabling them to bring professional experts to the consumer, or to the corporate's own customer base. Their technological expertise enables answers to be delivered in many forms, including 'phone, e-mail and the Internet.
Britta Schassan, founder of InfoGenie UK said: "We are delighted to work with Norwich Union on this project. Our unique 'virtual' structure enables us to connect highly qualified GPs from all over the country to the caller, while ensuring absolute caller confidentiality.
"This is radically different from the image of a call-centre being like a battery of hens, or a long and complicated series of 'phone buttons to press. It adds an exciting new dimension to the high-quality service provided by Norwich Union Healthcare."
Media contact: Louise Zucchi, Norwich Union Press Office, 08703 666860
Notes to Editors:
Norwich Union Healthcare was founded in 1990 as the healthcare arm of Norwich Union and now provides a range of income protection and private medical insurance products to around 675,000 customers. It is one of the largest providers of income protection and private medical insurance in the UK.
InfoGenie was founded in 1995, and is Europe's leader in the provision of high-level information helplines on topics as diverse as pets, horticulture, computer games, law, tax and medical advice. In the UK alone, over 400 contracted experts from all over the country supply advice on InfoGenie helplines. InfoGenie works closely with leading consumer magazines to provide expert advice lines for the general public, bringing easy access to high quality professional advice.
CGU and Norwich Union merged on 30 May 2000 to create CGNU plc - the world's 6th largest insurer, the UK's largest insurance group and one of the top-five life insurers in Europe with substantial positions in other markets around the world.
CGNU's principal business activities are long-term savings, general insurance and asset management with worldwide premium income and retail investment sales of Ł26 billion and assets under management of more than Ł200 billion.
The combined life and pensions, general insurance and retail fund businesses in the UK operate under the Norwich Union brand, while the institutional business operates under the Morley Fund Management brand.