Could one of these have stayed at base, for the sake of a phone call?
Promising research links A&E attendance to access
Recent reports have found that 20-30% of attendances at A&E were for conditions which could have been treated in primary care. Some hospital consultants put the figure at 50%
Is perceived lack of rapid access to a GP a key explanation?
The evidence: 20% lower A&E attendance rate at Patient Access practices
Research conducted in the NHS by Harry Longman and published here shows the association, fully adjusted for patient age/sex/deprivation, for FY0910. Is it causal? It is consistent across a diverse spread of practices by geography, size, deprivation, urban & rural contexts. The same result has been demonstrated by East Midlands Quality Observatory, using a different method of standardisation and for FY1011.
Analysis of practice operations shows the rapid response given to all patients, typically less than one hour to contact a doctor. The hypothesis is that this gives confidence in the availability of the GP, raising the threshold for self-referral to A&E.
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