Call handlers on the NHS non-emergency 111 phone line will try to identify possible Ebola sufferers, in the latest move announced by the health secretary.
Jeremy Hunt said anyone phoning with possible symptoms would be asked about their travel history and referred to local emergency services if necessary.
He said paramedics sent out would have "appropriate protective equipment".
The health secretary also said it was now "more likely than not" that Ebola would reach the UK.
The government has already announced screening from next week at some airports and Eurostar terminals.
In the US, President Barack Obama said hospitals should improve safety measures after a nurse in Texas who treated an Ebola patient tested positive for the virus.
Officials said the female health worker had become infected with the virus despite wearing full protective clothing.
Mr Hunt is to update MPs later on the UK's readiness to cope with a potential Ebola outbreak.
The health secretary said he would announce changes to procedures "across the NHS" and provide an estimate of the number of cases the UK needed to prepare for in the next three months.
It comes after the UK held an exercise on Saturday to test the national response.
'High risk'People who call 111 and report symptoms such as respiratory problems or vomiting will be asked about their travel history, Mr Hunt said.
He said anyone who had "recently been to West Africa and is at high risk of having been in contact with Ebola" would be assessed by emergency services.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Hunt said he thought "very few" people would use the service.
"But we have to prepare for the situation getting worse. And in West Africa now the incidence of Ebola is doubling every three to four weeks," he said.
"So I want to make sure we are prepared for the fact it is now more likely than not that someone will arrive in the UK with Ebola and one of the most crucial things in that situation is what happens when they make their first contact with the NHS."
He added that the risk to the public in Britain "remains low".
On Sunday, Mayor of London Boris Johnson said the government was at risk of promising "stuff that doesn't really make any sense".
He said screening - which is due to be introduced at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Eurostar terminals from next week - was "far from perfect".
Mr Johnson said blood tests could not be done on every passenger and temperature checks would not pick up infected people who had not yet developed symptoms - which can take up to three weeks.
'Blunt instrument'Passenger screening is expected to focus on people who have recently been to the worst-affected West African countries - Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
In an email seen by the BBC, one consultant has called the screening programme a "political gesture" which was "unlikely to provide public health benefits".
But the government's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, said although the programme was a "blunt instrument" it would save lives.
Screening is under way at New York's JFK airport, and checks at some other US airports are due to start in the coming days.
Figures published by the World Health Organization on Friday showed there had been 4,024 confirmed or suspected Ebola deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone during the current outbreak.
Have you been affected by the Ebola outbreak? You can send us your experiences by emailing to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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