TELEVISION presenter Zoe Ball is today backing a major campaign to encourage people to consider alternatives to A&E this winter.

The Great Choices Make Great Heroes campaign highlights how NHS services such as walk-in centres, GP practices and pharmacists can help deal with a range of health problems.

The idea is to persuade people not to go straight to the under-pressure accident and emergency department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Zoe, (pictured right with superheroes) who lives in Hove, has made a short film to promote the campaign, which will be played in Brighton and Hove Streamline taxis and GP waiting rooms.

It shows Zoe walking through Brighton’s North Laine, on the beach and on the Palace Pier, explaining how one in three visits to A&E in the city are for problems that could be dealt with outside of hospital.

By choosing GP services, walk-in clinics, pharmacies and the NHS 111 helpline for non life-threatening conditions, patients can be heroes by helping to ‘save A&E for saving lives’.

Zoe said: “I’m a mum and I commute outside Brighton for work a lot, so I do know how difficult it can be to know what to do when your family gets ill and where to go for help – especially in the evening and at weekends.

“The point of this campaign isn’t to tell people off, or judge people who do go to A&E, it’s about saying there are other places that can help if it isn’t a life-threatening emergency.

“Surveys across Sussex have shown that the public often don’t know what a walk-in centre is, where their local one is located, or what the NHS 111 helpline is for.

“The aim is to help us all save A&E for saving lives, meaning A&E doctors and nurses can concentrate on emergencies and the rest of us can still get the help we need.”

Doctors and nurses will be holding ‘Be an NHS superhero’ assemblies in primary schools to teach children about where to go for medical help.

Posters, leaflets and postcards will also be on display and distributed around the city.

A website www.wecouldbeheroes.nhs.uk has been designed to show people what options are available at the time of day or night they are looking for help and advice, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Using real-time and GPS technology, it shows users what’s open and where it is situated in relation to their current location.