Walk this way: estimating impacts of Walk in Centres at hospital emergency departments in the English National Health Service

Edward Pinchbeck

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In publicly funded health care systems policy-makers face a dilemma: placing low acuity emergency care services outside hospitals may widen access to care and divert patients from making costly hospital visits, but may also attract new patients that have little need for medical care. Using detailed information contained in hospital records, I evaluate the impacts of one type of low acuity service - Walk in Centres (WiCs) in the English National Health Service (NHS) - relying on timing differences in the deployment of a single wave of services and restricting attention to places where new facilities opened to mitigate endogeneity concerns. Results indicate that WiCs have significantly reduced attendances at hospital Emergency Departments in places close by, but suggest that only between 10-20% of patients seen at hospital-based WiCs and between 5-10% patients seen at other WiCs were diverted from the more costly high acuity facilities at hospitals.

Keywords: emergency care; primary care; Walk in Centres (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 I11 R53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2014-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64503/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Walk This Way: Estimating Impacts of Walk in Centres at Hospital Emergency Departments in the English National Health Service (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:64503

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