Emergency GP services are to be re-organised in time to cope with the Millennium celebrations in Kirklees and Calderdale.

Doctors are being offered the chance to join a 24-hour telephone helpline service so services can be better directed.

Most of the 298 GPs based in the Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Halifax areas are expected to sign up to a district-wide GP co-operative which is linked to NHS Direct.

The move comes after doctors under the present out-of-hours Healthcare system failed to cope last Christmas when phone lines were swamped during a flu epidemic.

Under the new system patients' calls will be answered by NHS Direct nurses in Wakefield who will then decide how best to help them.

Dr Andrew Deacon, chairman of Yorkshire Pennine Doctors On-Call which is forming the cooperative, said: "From a patient's point of view it will be a vast improvement.

"The old system is incredibly inefficient because it almost always involves a doctor going out to see a patient and it is destined to break down when there are a lot of calls.

"We know there will be a large number of calls during the New Year because surgeries will be closed for longer, and because a lot of people will be drunk, there will be more visits to do."

Under the NHS Direct system, which was launched in April, nurses use a computer programme to decide how to deal with problems.

They may send out an ambulance, a GP or simply give advice.

From this summer out-of-hours doctors will be based at primary care centres at hospitals in Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Halifax and patients will be encouraged to visit the centres if possible.

The plan is backed by the Calderdale and Kirklees Health Authority.

Authority director of commissioning and development Judith Young said: "The Health Authority has a responsibility to ensure there are high standards of care and service available to patients when they need them.

"This proposal offered a number of benefits to patients, GPs and NHS services that will help to enhance the current out-of-hours services locally."

Joe Cortis, chairman of Dewsbury and District Community Health Council, welcomed the aims of the initiative and said his group would be closely monitoring results.

He said: "The principle of providing health advice is sound but the system has to be tested.

"We will only know when this is running whether it is a better system."

The community health council will be holding a public meeting at Dewsbury Town Hall on May 25 to explain the changes. Representatives from NHS Direct will be there to answer questions.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.