To the Editor: The recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) statistics on emergency department (ED) care show that 38% of attendances from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012 were potential general practice presentations.1 This indicator is reported under the National Healthcare Agreement. Both the AIHW and Council of Australian Governments acknowledge that this method is flawed and have agreed to review this indicator.2 To date, this has not been done.
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Yusuf Nagree, Andrew Gosbell, Sally McCarthy and David Mountain are on the Council of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.