Internationally, there has been mounting interest in call centres and their use of modern telecommunications and information technology for the purpose of medical triage.1 These initiatives originated mostly in the United States in response to the need to reduce escalating healthcare costs.2 However, they became widespread in the early 1990s as part of a broader strategy by many US healthcare organisations to implement demand-management strategies focused on improving consumer health knowledge and preventing unnecessary use of expensive health resources such as emergency departments.3
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The authors gratefully acknowledge the advice and assistance of Julian Henderson, David Orrett, Patricia Kelly and the nurses at HealthDirect.
We declare there is no conflict of interest between any author and either HealthDirect, McKesson and the Western Australian Department of Health. No funding source is applicable to this article.