Rural emergency departments supplement general practice care

Allen, Penny L; Cheek, Colleen; Ruigrok, Marielle

doi:10.5694/mja14.01114

Topics

To the Editor: To provide a rural comparison to Nagree and colleagues' metropolitan study,1 we estimated the number of general practice-type patients attending emergency departments (EDs) in north-west Tasmania.

1 University of Tasmania, Burnie, TAS.
2 Department of Health and Human Services, Hobart, TAS.

Correspondence: penny.allen@utas.edu.au

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

1. Nagree Y, Camarda VJ, Fatovich DM, et al. Quantifying the proportion of general practice and low-acuity patients in the emergency department. Med J Aust 2013; 198: 612-615. <MJA full text>
2. Masso M, Bezzina AJ, Siminski P, et al. Why patients attend emergency departments for conditions potentially appropriate for primary care: reasons given by patients and clinicians differ. Emerg Med Australas 2007; 19: 333-340.
3. Tasmania Medicare Local. Tasmanian health directory. http://www.tasmedicarelocal.com.au/tasmanian-health-directory (accessed Jun 2014).
4. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian Social Trends, April 2013: Doctors and Nurses. Canberra: ABS, 2013. (ABS Cat. No. 4102.0.) http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features20April+2013 (accessed Jul 2014).
5. Dale J, Green J, Reid F, et al. Primary care in the accident and emergency department: II. Comparison of general practitioners and hospital doctors. BMJ 1995; 311: 427-430.

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