NHS Direct supported many local health authorities in England, including primary care trusts (PCTs), helping them to deliver high-quality healthcare to people in each region. These services ranged from dedicated projects in particular areas, such as the local telephone helpline set up for Sandwell PCT after a dental health scare, to schemes that were developed nationwide. These include a telephone-based pre and post-operative assessment for patients having surgery, and allocating care managers to give regular coaching and advice to those with long term conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. History and background NHS Direct was launched in 1998 after the government identified a need for a telephone health advice line staffed by nurses as part of its plans to modernise the NHS. The aim of NHS Direct, as stated by the government in the NHS White Paper, The New NHS, was "to provide people at home with easier and faster advice and information about health, illness, and the NHS, so that they are better able to care for themselves and their families". The NHS Direct telephone service began taking calls in three contact centres in Lancashire, Northumbria and Milton Keynes in March 1998. These original sites were set up as pilots but soon proved successful, reaching over 1 million people and earning highly positive feedback. Additional waves of pilots were established in contact centres around England until the whole country was covered by the NHS Direct telephone service in 2000. NHS Direct added a website to its services at the end of 1999, allowing users to find clinically accurate health advice and information anonymously. Since its creation, the NHS Direct website was steadily improved and developed, attracting more users. By 2008, there were over 1.5 million visitors to the website every month. NHS Direct's services continued to expand and improve. It had been said that this has made the organisation "the largest and most successful healthcare provider of its kind, anywhere in the world". It was reported that each call made to NHS Direct cost £25 to answer - an earlier official report had put the total at £16. In April 2007, NHS Direct became an NHS Trust, giving it the opportunity to apply for foundation trust status. In August 2010, the BBC reported that David Cameron's coalition government was planning to scrap the NHS Direct 0845 46 47 helpline telephone service in favour of the cheaper NHS 111