If you are out and about with your Android device in the UK and happen to be taken ill in some out of the way place and need some reliable medical advice you may like to know that the NHS Direct app for Android devices has now been released to the Android Market for devices running Android 1.5 and above.

The NHS Direct app for Android will help people who fee ill to self assess their symptoms whilst delivering advice that will enable them to treat their symptoms using clinically proven online self care advice, which will mean some will be less likely to contact GPs or A&E.

The associate director of Multichannel, NHS Direct, Roger Donald says, “The NHS Direct app has been developed in response to the popularity of this new mobile channel and to the specific needs of the growing number of patients who prefer to access health advice online. Patients can access rapid and convenient health advice through the app with the reassurance that the information is from a trusted source. Our online health and symptom checkers are already extremely popular and we hope making them mobile we will benefit more people and contribute to helping take pressure off other local NHS services.”

The NHS Direct app for Android delivers 37 of the NHS Direct online symptom checkers including such checkers for sore throats, colds, hay fever, bites, and flu, and when the user completes a set of questions the app provides self care advice, provide instruction on the appropriate course of action or generate a call back from an NHS Direct nurse advisor.

The iPhone version of the NHS Direct app will become available on iTunes sometime in June while the NHS Direct app for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market as of right now.