Primary care in accident and emergency and general practice: A comparison

Judith Green and Jeremy Dale

Social Science & Medicine, 1992, vol. 35, issue 8, 987-995

Abstract: This paper reviews the way in which literature describing 'inappropriate' attenders at Accident and Emergency (A & E) departments in Britain has suggested that they could be provided for in General Practice and that their attendance at A & E departments therefore implies a 'failure' of general practice in urban areas. One problem with much previous research is that 'inappropriate' attenders have been retrospectively identified. The comparative survey of attenders at a London A & E department and patients visiting their GP in the same district reported here prospectively identified A & E attenders with primary care problems and examined the differences between them and the GP attenders. Patients attending the hospital A & E department were similar to the GP attenders in terms of socio-economic indicators, but had problems which were not typical of the general practice workload and were in different circumstances. The results suggest that there will be a continuing demand for hospital-provided primary care in urban areas, and that attempts to deflect such care to the community will meet with limited success.

Keywords: primary; care; accident; and; emergency; health; seeking; behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1992
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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