Table 1 Contact frequency and patient characteristics at the general practice cooperative and self referral to the accident and emergency department.
| Total region | GP cooperative | Self referral to A&E department | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact frequency | n = 5178 | n = 4423 | n = 755 |
| (100%) | (85.5%) | (14.5%) | |
| Contact frequency/ | 301 | 258 | 43 |
| 1000 patients | |||
| per year | |||
| Men (%) | 45.8 | 43.4 | 60.1 |
| Age (%) | |||
| 0–15 | 26.4 | 27.9 | 17.5 |
| 16–65 | 55.7 | 53.0 | 71.7 |
| >65 | 17.9 | 19.1 | 10.9 |
| Urgency (%) | |||
| U1+U2 | 4.9 | 4.6 | 6.1 |
| U3 | 17.4 | 13.0 | 43.6 |
| U4 | 77.7 | 82.4 | 50.3 |
| Complaints (%) | |||
| Trauma | 15.4 | 6.8 | 66.1 |
| Infection | 22.9 | 26.2 | 3.7 |
| Musculo‐skeletal | 11.4 | 12.8 | 3.4 |
| problems | |||
| Digestive tract | 9.0 | 10.1 | 2.4 |
| Respiratory | 4.2 | 4.8 | 0.9 |
| problems | |||
| Heart | 4.2 | 3.9 | 6.1 |
| Other problems | 32.8 | 35.4 | 17.4 |
A&E, accident and emergency; GP, general practice.