Table 2.
Characteristics of OOH-PC contacts for preschool children and proportions considered by GPs to be more appropriately targeted to the daytime GP (N = 1748)
| Telephone consultations | Face-to-face contacts | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n (%) | Appropriate for daytime GP (%) |
n (%) | Appropriate for daytime GP (%) |
||
| All calls | 522 (100.0) | 17.6 | 1226 (100.0) | 18.4 | |
| Age | 0–2 years | 354 (67.8) | 18.4 | 862 (70.3) | 17.8 |
| 3–5 years | 168 (32.2) | 16.1 | 364 (29.7) | 19.8 | |
| Reason for encountera | Fever | 167 (32.0) | 12.0 | 464 (37.9) | 17.2 |
| Cough | 56 (10.7) | 16.1 | 224 (18.3) | 18.8 | |
| Earache | 41 (7.9) | 9.8 | 77 (6.3) | 19.5 | |
| Vomiting | 34 (6.5) | 8.8 | 65 (5.3) | 15.4 | |
| Other RFE | 285 (54.6) | 22.8 | 595 (48.5) | 19.5 | |
| Duration of symptoms | <5 h | 166 (31.8) | 13.3 | 273 (22.3) | 13.2 |
| 5–12 h | 126 (24.1) | 15.9 | 270 (22.0) | 17.9 | |
| 12–24 h | 86 (16.5) | 15.1 | 290 (23.7) | 15.5 | |
| >24 h | 130 (24.9) | 26.9 | 387 (31.6) | 24.6 | |
| Missing | 14 (2.7) | – | 6 (0.5) | – | |
| Time of contact | Weekdays 4–8 p.m. | 110 (21.1) | 24.6 | 216 (17.6) | 22.7 |
| Weekday nights (8 pm - 8 am) | 172 (33.0) | 17.4 | 299 (24.4) | 18.7 | |
| Weekends and holidays | 240 (46.0) | 14.6 | 711 (58.0) | 16.9 | |
| Geographical location | Urban | 222 (42.5) | 17.1 | 505 (41.2) | 17.8 |
| Rural (<5000 inhab. Per postal code) | 279 (53.5) | 18.3 | 644 (52.5) | 18.3 | |
| Missing | 21 (4.0) | – | 77 (6.3) | – | |
| Parent-assessed severity | Potentially severe | 203 (38.9) | 9.4 | 721 (58.8) | 15.3 |
| Not severe | 317 (60.7) | 23.0 | 498 (40.6) | 22.9 | |
| Missing | 2 (0.4) | – | 7 (0.6) | – | |
aThe five most frequent RFEs; numbers add up to more than the total as several RFEs were stated for some cases