Summary
Hospital emergency departments (EDs) are under increasing, sometimes extreme, pressure. Patients are experiencing long hours of waiting to be seen. We have seen media reports of emergency services in crisis. This situation has arisen partly because people attend EDs with problems that GPs could deal with. Finding better ways to assess and treat patients coming to EDs could have a major impact on the experience and care of the millions of people attending EDs and on all NHS services by providing evidence of how best to manage resources.
Many EDs now work closely with GPs in three main ways:
- Assessing patients and sending them to a GP clinic next door to the ED;
- Placing GPs in the ED to make a brief assessment of patients and decide what type of healthcare provider they need to see
- Placing GPs in the ED as extra staff to provide treatment.
It is not known how well these arrangements provide care or if they make a difference to how quickly patients receive treatment and referrals for tests and other services. Our study will look at what works, for whom and in what circumstances.
In this study we will look at:
- What are the different ways of working, how are they are organised and how common are they?
- How do they work in practice? Do they do what they were meant to do?
- Hospital admissions, re-attendance, waiting times, patient safety and staff and patient satisfaction
- What are the key factors that lead to a better service?
Patient Privacy Notice
Please click here for the study’s patient privacy notice.
Contact Details
Website: http://www.primecentre.wales/gps-in-eds.php