PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - C Thompson AU - C Hayhurst AU - A Boyle TI - How have changes to out-of-hours primary care services since 2004 affected emergency department attendances at a UK District General Hospital? A longitudinal study AID - 10.1136/emj.2008.068817 DP - 2010 Jan 01 TA - Emergency Medicine Journal PG - 22--25 VI - 27 IP - 1 4099 - http://emj.bmj.com/content/27/1/22.short 4100 - http://emj.bmj.com/content/27/1/22.full SO - Emerg Med J2010 Jan 01; 27 AB - Background: The delivery of out-of-hours primary medical care in the United Kingdom has changed substantially since 2004, and there has been little examination of the effect that this has on secondary care.Aim: The authors aimed to quantify the change in patient type presenting to our emergency department.Methods: In this study, routinely collected coding data before, during and after the changes were analysed. Each September and October between 1999 and 2006 were included.Results: There was a steady increase in all attendances at our emergency department. The number and proportions of patients with non-traumatic conditions rose steadily throughout the study period. The number of patients presenting with traumatic conditions stayed the same. The number of patients presenting with non-traumatic conditions out-of-hours rose after the changes were implemented.Interpretation: The changes to the provision of out-of-hours primary care have been associated with an increase in patients with non-traumatic attendances presenting to our emergency department. This effect is most marked outside of office hours.