An innovative urgent care telephone service has prevented up to 400 avoidable hospital admissions in Bedfordshire since its launch nine months ago, its backers have said.

The 1call service, set up last October by the Bedfordshire Primary Care Trust and the East of England Ambulance Service, gives GP practices, care homes and other health and social care agencies a single number to call when they need urgent care advice and intervention for their patients and clients.

In the past, urgent care services were accessed in a number of ways including 999, NHS Direct, GP out-of-hours services and community out-of-hours services. Now it only takes one call.

The operators say 1call is designed to ensure that patients get the right care from the right person at the right time.

Around 60 calls a week are coming in from GPs, nursing homes, hospital acute assessment units, social services and others.

Each is answered by trained ambulance staff within thirty seconds and referrals passed to an assessment co-ordinator in the Intermediate Care service.

They assess patients face-to-face at home or in the community within two hours and put in place the care they need. Details of the referral are sent to the patient's GP for information.

The service is helping 45 patients a month stay out of hospital when they have a need for urgent care.

And the number of calls continues to grow.

Debbie Blake, Parkinson's Specialist Nurse at Bedfordshire PCT, used 1call recently for one of her patients.

She said: "I telephoned the team and they responded within two hours, which really pleased the patient and his wife. If the patient had been admitted to hospital, we would have been looking at a possible stay of 28 days."

Sonia Jordan, chief executive of Ivel Valley Health Partnership, said: "The service has allowed local GPs to refer their patients to a central point, confident that the needs of that patient will be met quickly and appropriately. This has meant that patients with urgent needs can now be cared for at home, when previously they would probably have been admitted to hospital."

Dean Ayres, associate director of service development for the East of England Ambulance Service, said: "The Trust has been developing the technologies to support a single point of access for several years. We are pleased to be at the leading edge of improving the way patients gain access to the care they need, where they need it and when they need it."