Abstract
Background: Alder Hey Children's NHS FT has a dedicated Paediatric Emergency Department (ED) with an annual attendance of 60,000 children.
Previous work has shown that 71% of attendances (injury and illness) are non urgent cases. This places a large patient burden on the department.
The ED and the Primary Care Trust (PCT) were aware that there were a large number of children who could be seen more appropriately in a local primary care setting.
Methods: Access to the PCT appointments system (EMIS) was established in the ED and staff were trained in its use.
Liverpool GP practices were contacted to sign up to the project.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria for patients were jointly agreed by the ED and the PCT.
Triage nurses at the ED were coached in approaching patients for diversion and arranging their appointment.
Results: Since January 2010, over 1000 patients have been offered an appointment at their GP practice from the ED.
The majority have refused. 16 patients (1.6%) have accepted the offer and avoided an ED visit.
> 40% of patients had been sent by their GP to the ED and so were not eligible, although they fulfilled all other criteria.
Conclusions: Although some parents choose to come to the ED, many patients have been told to attend by their GP.
Most parents wished to remain in the ED.
These results may reflect a lack of confidence by families in their GP, or a lack of knowledge of paediatrics in primary care.
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Williams, K., Mehta, B., Peterson, C. et al. 734 Diverting Patients From a Paediatric Emergency Department to Primary Care - Does it Work?. Pediatr Res 68 (Suppl 1), 372–373 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00734
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00734