The announcement on 23 August for pilots of a new 111 phone number for people with urgent but not life-threatening health problems in east of England, the north east and east midlands.
This follows calls from the Ambulance Service Network (ASN) to make a number other than 999 available to help make sure patients get access to the right care first time.
Read the full press release.
The ASN had responsed to a consultation that Ofcom had undertaken in July 2009, in response to a request from the Department of Health (DH) for the introduction of a new three-digit telephone number to give the public access to NHS non-emergency healthcare services in England.
Read the ASN response to this consultation from 2009.