Reference	Study design; population characteristics (country)	Intervention (type; mode of delivery; location)	Summary of findings	Funding model
Rizos, 1990 63	Survey; patients (Canada)	Walk‐in clinic; in‐person only; located in shopping mall	Main reasons for clinic visits: convenience, timely access, no appointments needed. Most patients would have visited other clinics or the ED if theirs were closed. Despite most visits being outside regular hours, satisfaction was high.	Not reported.
Salisbury, 1997 64	Postal survey; patients (UK)	General practitioner cooperative; hybrid (phone call, face‐to‐face, or home visit); not reported	Patients who received telephone advice, preferred their own doctor or a home visit, or experienced longer waiting times reported lower overall satisfaction. Satisfaction levels varied more within patient groups than between models for out‐of‐hours care. Shifting to a primarily telephone‐based advice service could increase dissatisfaction.	Not reported.
Hallam, 1999 68	Semi‐structured interviews and postal surveys; general practitioners, health service managers, purchasers, providers, and patients (UK)	UCC; hybrid (in‐person, telephone, home visits); various locations (hospital, accident and emergency, general practitioner health centres, community centres); standalone	General practitioners find public involvement lacking. Transitioning to cooperative care is resisted because of resource limitations. Recruiting general practitioners requires effort, patient satisfaction is high. Concerns persist about the model's long term viability. Suggestions include public education and improving general practitioner skills.	Government and private.
Shipman, 2000 65	Survey; general population attending the services (UK)	General practitioner cooperative; hybrid (phone call, face‐to‐face or home visit); not reported	Patients were satisfied with cooperative, practice‐based, or deputising services, but were concerned about service quality. Satisfaction varied more with cooperative service delivery; concerns about telephone consultations and access to out‐of‐hours care.	Not reported.
Brown, 2002 51	Focus group; physicians (Canada, UK)	Walk‐in centre; in‐person only; standalone	Growth of clinics driven by increasing patient expectations for convenient health care and reduced availability of family physicians. Need to increase accountability of physicians and patients and to alter the framework of primary health care delivery to bridge the gap.	Not reported.
McKinley, 2002 62	Survey; all who requested care after their practice had closed on weekday evenings and weekends (UK)	Out‐of‐hours primary care; in‐person only; not reported	Meeting or failing to meet patients’ care expectations predicts their satisfaction with out‐of‐hours care. Providers should manage patient service expectations to reduce dissatisfaction.	Not reported.
Hutchison, 2003 60	Cohort study; patients (Canada)	Walk‐in clinic; in‐person only; not reported	Family practice patients were most satisfied with waiting times; family practices and walk‐in clinics were rated more positively than EDs on all satisfaction dimensions. However, overall care quality was scored higher in walk‐in clinics and EDs than in family practices.	Private (fee for service).
Bury, 2005 67	Questionnaire/survey and semi‐structured interviews; physicians (Ireland)	General practitioner out‐of‐hours cooperative; hybrid (telephone follow‐up and in‐person); various locations	More clarity required about the mutual support level of general practitioner cooperatives and ambulance services, including procedures for call transfers, understanding each other's roles, and developing common procedures.	Not reported.
Jackson, 2005 61	Semi‐structured interviews; patients (UK)	Walk‐in clinic; in‐person only; within minor injuries unit	Patients note the clinics helped improve health care accessibility by offering an alternative for professional advice and treatment. They alleviate pressure on general practice and accident and emergency facilities, empowering people to satisfy their health care needs responsibly.	Government (National Health Service)
van Uden, 2005 56	Survey informed by general practitioner interviews; general practitioners (Netherlands)	General practice cooperatives; hybrid (phone call, face‐to‐face or home visit); standalone	General practitioners are generally satisfied with cooperatives for out‐of‐hours care, more with standalone cooperatives than integrated ones.	Not reported.
Egbunike, 2010 58	Semi‐structured telephone interviews and thematic analysis; service users or carers (UK)	Out‐of‐hours clinic; hybrid (telephone triage and in‐person); hospital and standalone locations	Service users need streamlined and flexible triage systems to improve satisfaction and manage their conditions. Better information and education about services are essential for optimal user benefit and satisfaction, potentially affecting decisions about care.	General practitioner cooperative, non‐for‐profit funding; hospital based, government funded and private out‐of‐hours service; privately funded.
Philips, 2010 69	Survey; patients (Belgium)	General practitioner deputising services; in‐person only; home based or ED care	Of 350 respondents, 99 (98.6%) were aware of the ED, 82 (81.7%) knew about the clinic. Reasons for favouring the ED: easy access, thorough explanations from doctors, delayed payment deadlines. Reason for favouring the clinic: shorter waiting times.	Not reported.
Johansen, 2011 54	Focus groups; general practitioners (Norway)	Casualty clinic; in‐person only; various	General practitioners found out‐of‐hours psychiatry difficult because of uncertainty and inadequate support, potentially affecting care quality. To maintain emergency mental health care, better support for general practitioners outside normal hours is essential.	Not reported.
Smits, 2012 16	Survey; patients (Netherlands)	General practitioner cooperatives; hybrid (phone call, face‐to‐face or home visit); not reported	Patients were satisfied with general practitioner cooperatives, and it was increasing four years after opening. Areas where improvement is needed include advice quality, waiting times, and information provided.	Not reported.
Amiel, 2014 57	Survey; urgent care centre service users (UK)	UCC; in‐person only; co‐located with emergency department	Primary motivations for service use: access to care, receiving prescription medication, dissatisfaction with general practitioner. The clinic primarily attracted healthy young adults, often registered with general practitioners, seeking convenience and ease of access. Need for patient education and self‐management.	Government agency (National Health Service).
Arain, 2015 66	Interviews; health care professionals (consultants, general practitioners, nurses) and managers (general practitioner‐led walk‐in centre managers, primary care trust managers) (UK)	Walk‐in centre; in‐person only; not reported.	Daytime visits to adult ED reduced after opening of the clinic, but not at night. Survey responses indicated that some people were redirected from the ED.	Government and private.
Greenfield, 2016 52	Phenomenological study with semi‐structured open‐ended interview; staff (UK)	UCC; in‐person only; co‐located with accident and emergency department	Four main themes: confusion about choices, overt reasons, covert motives, question of legitimacy. Participants acknowledged patients’ use of UCCs because of convenience, urgency, anxiety, and lack of self‐care skills.	Commissioned by National Health Service.
Keizer, 2016 55	Cross‐sectional survey; general practitioners (Netherlands)	General practitioner cooperative (out‐of‐hours primary care); in‐person only; not reported	Of 428 respondents, increased workload reported by 370 (86.5%) of respondents, and 393 (91.8%) believed patient contacts could be reduced; 323 (75.4%) cited societal expectations for 24‐hour service as key reason for non‐urgent visits to cooperatives; 359 (83.9%) saw current telephone triage methods as contributing to high cooperative use. Proposed solutions included co‐payments, stricter triage, expanding telephone consultation roles, and patient education.	Not reported.
Ablard, 2017 50	Survey and semi‐structured interviews with thematic analysis, lead emergency department consultants (UK)	UCCs and general practitioner out‐of‐hours; hybrid; co‐located next to ED	Four themes: justification for the service, level of integration, referral processes, sustainability. Need to develop a service within or near the ED, and to establish efficient triage procedures.	Government agency (National Institute for Health Research Clinical Applications Research Centre Yorkshire and Humber).
Heutmekers, 2022 53	Semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews; health care professionals (Netherlands)	Out‐of‐hours general practitioner cooperative for people with intellectual disabilities; hybrid (phone call and in person); not reported	Quality of care is shaped more by the organisational environment rather than medical factors, indicating the need for clear standards for roles and responsibilities of health care professionals to improve accessibility and quality of care for people with intellectual disabilities.	Not reported.
Greene, 2023 59	Semi‐structured telephone interviews and thematic analysis; service users and relatives (Australia)	Complex And RestorativE centre; in‐person only; standalone	Most participants preferred the centre to the nearby ED for its calm atmosphere and specialised geriatric medicine staff. Programs aimed at avoiding ED visits would be a viable alternative for older people needing urgent care, improving public health systems and user satisfaction.	Not reported.

ED = emergency department; UK = United Kingdom.