Table 4. Criteria used for patient discharge. (a) Temperature and duration for those who use temperature criterion and (b) Neutrophil count criteria for those who use it.

	1 reading	2 readings 4 h apart	3 readings 4 h apart	24 h	Othera	Total
(a)
⩽37°C	0	8	1	44	7	60
⩽37.5°C	2	10	3	41	4	60
⩽37.9°C	0	1	0	2	0	3
Total	2	19	4	87	11	123b
(b)
	Neutrophil count only	Temperature and neutrophil count	Other	Total
⩾0.5 × 109/l	0	36 (and rising in 1)	0	36 (39%)
⩾1 × 109/l	1	18 (and rising in 3)	3	22 (24%)
Rising neurophil count irrespective of value	1	29	2	32 (34%)
Otherc	0	3	0	3 (3%)
Total	2	86	5d	93

^aIncludes 72 h, 1 reading or 24, 24–48, 48, 72, >24 h.

^bOne respondent who stated temperature and neutrophil count as criteria for patient discharge did not actually specify the criteria.

^cIncludes 0.8 × 10⁹/l, ⩾0.3 × 10⁹/l, ⩾0.2 × 10⁹/l and rising.

^dTwo of the clinicians who specified ‘other’ criteria did not use neutrophil count.