Table 3.
Unscheduled care contact reasons, attendance types, and clinical priorities
| GPOOH | GPOOH (N= 5749 attendances),n (%) | A&E (N= 1165 attendances),n (%) | A&E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coded reason for contacta | Coded reason for contact | ||
| Palliative care | 1109 (24.2)a | 216 (18.5) | Unwell |
| Pain | 482 (10.5)a | 336 (28.8) | Pain |
| Breathlessness | 105 (2.3)a | 143 (12.3) | Breathlessness |
| Infection | 561 (12.2)a | 30 (2.6) | Infection |
| GI symptom | 330 (7.2)a | 28 (2.4) | GI symptom |
| Acute neurological symptoms | 50 (1.1)a | 164 (14.1) | Acute neurological condition |
| Mental health | 20 (0.4)a | 1 (0.1) | Mental health |
| Medication request | 257 (5.6)a | 172 (14.8) | Fall |
| Other | 1673 (36.5)a | 75 (6.4) | Other |
| Missing | 1162 (20.2) | 0 | Missing |
|
| |||
| Attendance type and setting for GP contact | Mode of arrival | ||
| Home visit | 2876 (50.0) | 848 (72.8) | Ambulance |
| NHS24 nurse advice | 592 (10.3) | 305 (26.2) | Private transport |
| District nurse visit | 548 (9.5) | 6 (0.5) | Public transport |
| In-person attendance for appointment at OOH centre | 410 (7.1) | 6 (0.5) | Other |
| See and treat | 297 (5.2) | — | |
| Telephone advice from GP | 934 (16.2) | — | |
| Other | 92 (1.6) | — | |
|
| |||
| Clinical priority ascribed | Clinical priority ascribed | ||
| Emergency | 342 (5.9) | 227 (19.5) | Resuscitation |
| Urgent | 1854 (32.2) | 613 (52.6) | Majors |
| Routine | 3110 (54.1) | 325 (27.9) | Minors |
| NHS24 Advice | 443 (7.7) | — | |
a
Contacts with missing clinical coding, n = 1162, were excluded from the denominator when calculating percentage. There are 5749 total GPOOH consultations and 4587 ‘coded’ GP OOH consultations (consultations for which there is a clinical Read Code given, which excludes the 1162 consultations that are ‘missing’ Read Codes/uncoded). The percentages given use 4587 as the denominator in order to give the percentage of coded contacts. A&E = accident and emergency services. GI = gastrointestinal. GPOOH = GP out-of-hours service.