PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - O'Kelly, Fergus D AU - Teljeur, Conor AU - Carter, Ian AU - Plunkett, Patrick K TI - Impact of a GP cooperative on lower acuity emergency department attendances AID - 10.1136/emj.2009.072686 DP - 2010 Oct 01 TA - Emergency Medicine Journal PG - 770--773 VI - 27 IP - 10 4099 - http://emj.bmj.com/content/27/10/770.short 4100 - http://emj.bmj.com/content/27/10/770.full SO - Emerg Med J2010 Oct 01; 27 AB - Background In 1998 ‘Dubdoc’, Ireland's first out-of-hours general practice emergency service, opened in an outpatient suite in St James's Hospital with a separate entrance 300 m from the emergency department (ED). Dubdoc was established with the aim of providing an easy access out-of-hours service for ambulatory patients of those doctors supplying the service.Aim To determine whether ED attendances for patients in the lower acuity triage categories 4 and 5 have changed since the establishment of ‘Dubdoc’.Methods A retrospective review of all attendances at the ‘Dubdoc’ service was compared with attendances at the ED for triage categories 4 and 5 of the same hospital over a 9-year period (1999–2007 inclusive) for equivalent times of day.Results ED attendances during ‘Dubdoc’ hours have decreased as a proportion of all attendances for triage categories 4 and 5. ED attendances for triage categories 4 and 5 fell substantially during the study period.Conclusions Although the presence of the ‘Dubdoc’ service has resulted in a decrease in ED attendances for triage categories 4 and 5, this is a minor proportion of the overall decrease in attendances in this group of patients.