Emergency department attendances and GP patient satisfaction

AbstractBackground: Despite invaluable national data, reasons for the relentless rise in England’s emergency department (ED) attendances remain elusive.Setting: All EDs and general practices in England.Question: Are rising ED attendances related to general practice patient satisfaction, i.e. if patients are unable to get a convenient appointment with their general practitioner (GP), then do they attend their local ED for diagnosis, treatment and care instead?Method: GP patient satisfaction and ED attendance data were extracted from national data warehouses and organised into two groups: (i) England clinical commissioning group (CCG) areas and (ii) a London CCG subset. Data from London CCGs were compared with CCGs outside London.Results: ED attendances were strongly correlated with GP patient satisfaction data in non-London CCGs, e.g. if patients said they had difficulty obtaining a convenient appointment at their general practice, then local ED attendances increased. Associations were repeated when other ...