| General |
Out-of-hours primary care has been provided by large-scale general practitioner (GP) cooperatives since the year 2000 |
| About 120 GP cooperatives in the Netherlands |
| Out-of-hours defined as daily from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. holidays and the entire weekend |
| Population of 100,000 to 500,000 patients with an average care consumption of 250/1000 inhabitants per year |
| Participation of 50–250 GPs per cooperative with a mean of 4 hours on call per week |
| Per shift GPs have different roles: supervising telephone triage, doing centre consultations or home visits |
| Location |
GP cooperative usually situated in or near a hospital’s Accident and Emergency department (A&E) |
| Distance of patients to GP cooperative is maximally 30 km |
| Accessibility |
Access via a single regional telephone number (only 5–10% walk in without a call in advance) |
| Telephone triage by nurses supervised by GPs: contacts are divided into telephone advice (by triage nurse or GP) (40%), GP clinic consultation (50%), or GP home visit (10%) |
| Some GP cooperatives use a central call center for telephone triage |
| Facilities |
Home visits are supported by trained drivers in identifiable fully equipped cars (e.g. oxygen, intra venous drip equipment, automated external defibrillator, medication for acute treatment) |
| Information and communication technology (ICT) support, including electronic patient files, online connection to the GP car, and sometimes connection with the electronic medical record in the GP daily practice. |
