Putting to rest the myth that emergency department overcrowding is due to a lack of primary care services
Australia’s emergency departments (EDs) are dangerously overcrowded, but a study by Buckley and colleagues in this issue of the Journal1 should be the last nail in the coffin of the long-discredited myth that the root cause is a lack of primary care services. This study used a time series approach to identify a real — but clinically insignificant — change in ED workload after the opening of an after-hours primary care service in the New South Wales inland rural city of Wagga Wagga. The Australian public are entitled to receive high-quality and available care in both primary care and emergency settings, but the overlap between these services is not as important as many have claimed.2,3
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- 1. Buckley DJ, Curtis PW, McGirr JG. The effect of a general practice after-hours clinic on emergency department presentations: a regression time series analysis. Med J Aust 2010; 192: 448-451. <MJA full text>
- 2. AM (ABC Radio). Carr proposes setting up more GP clinics near emergency departments [transcript]. 2003; 18 Aug. http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s926366.htm (accessed Mar 2010).
- 3. NSW Health. After-hours GP service supports Sutherland Hospital’s Emergency Department [media release]. 2009; 4 May. Sydney: NSW Government, 2009. http://www.sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au/News_and_Events/2009/20090504_AfterHoursGPService.asp (accessed Mar 2010).
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My unit has received research funding from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.