Table 1. Descriptive statistics for self-referred discharged ED visits, and characteristics of general practices and their registered populations in England, 2010-11.
| Variable | Median | IQR* | Min. | Max. |
| Number of self-referred discharged ED visits | 452.0 | 231.0 – 788.0 | 2.0 | 7508.0 |
| Rate of self-referred discharged ED visits † | 0.08 | 0.05 – 0.12 | 0.00 | 0.35 |
| Registered population size | 6084.5 | 3624.0 – 9347.5 | 762.0 | 40327.0 |
| Aged 65 years or over (%) | 15.8 | 11.8 – 19.1 | 0.0 | 45.3 |
| Male (%) | 49.8 | 48.9 – 51.1 | 39.0 | 76.1 |
| White (%) | 84.9 | 69.5 – 91.0 | 0.3 | 100.0 |
| Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) | 21.6 | 13.6 – 31.9 | 2.9 | 68.5 |
| Asthma prevalence (%) | 5.9 | 5.1 – 6.7 | 0.0 | 20.0 |
| Hypertension prevalence (%) | 13.8 | 11.7 – 15.9 | 0.0 | 37.4 |
| Obesity prevalence (%) | 10.7 | 8.3 – 13.3 | 0.0 | 32.3 |
| Number of GPs per 1,000 registered patients | 0.6 | 0.5 – 0.8 | 0.1 | 5.4 |
| Travel time to the nearest hospital relative to the nearest GP by public transport and/or walking | 2.5 | 1.9 – 3.4 | 0.8 | 13.0 |
| Had tried to see a GP within two weekdays (%) | 59.3 | 54.9 – 63.6 | 38.6 | 84.2 |
| Was able to see a GP within two weekdays (%) ‡ | 82.0 | 74.0 – 89.3 | 25.0 | 100.0 |
| Had tried to book a GP appointment more than two weekdays in advance (%) | 46.6 | 41.0 – 51.5 | 6.1 | 77.1 |
| Was able to book a GP appointment more than two weekdays in advance (%) | 75.9 | 64.0 – 85.7 | 0.0 | 100.0 |
| Had found it very or fairly easy to speak to a GP on the phone (%) | 55.2 | 40.6 – 68.9 | 3.0 | 100.0 |
| See their preferred GP always, almost always or a lot of the time (%) | 73.4 | 61.9 – 83.3 | 14.3 | 100.0 |
7,856 general practices were included in the analysis.
Urban/Rural classification: Urban (n = 6,631); Rural (n = 1,225).
Strategic Health Authority: North East (n = 379); North West (n = 1,202); Yorkshire and the Humber (n = 748); East Midlands (n = 604); West Midlands (n = 916); East of England (n = 764); London (n = 1,424) South East Coast (n = 616); South Central (n = 492); South West (n = 711).
*
IQR: interquartile range.
†
Number of self-referred discharged ED visits per registered patient.
‡
The question in the GP Patient Survey associated with this variable was only completed by patients who had tried to see a GP within two weekdays in the past six months.