An MP has claimed a new NHS phone service will replace an excellent system with a worse one.

Andy Love MP made the comments about new NHS 111 that will replace NHS Direct in Edmonton in mid-March.

The non-emergency service will channel callers to doctors and clinicians instead of being manned by nurses as is the case with NHS Direct.

The Edmonton MP said: "NHS Direct helps more than 4million people each year and has trained nurses to advise on non-emergency calls, so it’s a scandal that the Government is dismantling it like this in the name of savings.

“This is yet another example of the coalition’s short-termist policies, which seek to destroy what works and replace excellent services with inferior ones.”

“What makes it even harder to swallow is the fact they don’t seem to have factored in the savings already being made by NHS Direct through keeping people away from hospitals and doctors’ surgeries.”