ArticleBMC health services research2007
Exploring the effect of changes to service provision on the use of unscheduled care in England: population surveys.
Article in BMC health services research, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Factors that influence family and parental preferences and decision making for unscheduled paediatric healthcare - systematic review.BMC health services research · 2020Pooled it
- A systematic review of interventions to enhance access to best practice primary health care for chronic disease management, prevention and episodic care.BMC health services research · 2012Pooled it
- Review
- Parent's preferences for unscheduled paediatric healthcare: A discrete choice experiment.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2023Article
- Unscheduled healthcare for children with intellectual disabilities: A systematic scoping review.Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARID · 2022Article
- Stuff you think you can handle as a parent and stuff you can't'. Understanding parental health-seeking behaviour when accessing unscheduled care: A qualitative study.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2021Article
- Seeking Care for Hyperglycemia in the Emergency Department: Through the Eyes of the Patient.Diabetes spectrum : a publication of the American Diabetes Association · 2021Article
- Parental Hesitancy and Concerns around Accessing Paediatric Unscheduled Healthcare during COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Survey.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- 'Clinically unnecessary' use of emergency and urgent care: A realist review of patients' decision making.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2020Review
- Article
- Using systems thinking to identify workforce enablers for a whole systems approach to urgent and emergency care delivery: a multiple case study.BMC health services research · 2016Article
- Patient-centered appointment scheduling using agent-based simulation.AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium · 2014Article
- Why do patients with long-term conditions use unscheduled care? A qualitative literature review.Health & social care in the community · 2013Review
- Patients' experience and satisfaction with GP led walk-in centres in the UK; a cross sectional study.BMC health services research · 2013Article
- Operationalising unscheduled care policy: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals' perspectives.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2013Article
- Patients' experiences and views of an emergency and urgent care system.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2012Article
- Testing survey methodology to measure patients' experiences and views of the emergency and urgent care system: telephone versus postal survey.BMC medical research methodology · 2010Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUnscheduled care is defined here as when someone seeks treatment or advice for a health problem without arranging to do so more than a day in advance. Recent health policy initiatives in England have focused on introducing new services such as NHS Direct and walk in centres into the unscheduled care system. This study used population surveys to explore the effect of these new services on the use of traditional providers of unscheduled care, and to improve understanding of help seeking behaviour within the system of unscheduled care.
methodsCross-sectional population postal surveys were undertaken annually over the five year period 1998 to 2002 in two geographical areas in England. Each year questionnaires were sent to 5000 members of the general population in each area.
resultsThe response rate was 69% (33,602/48,883). Over the five year period 16% (5223/33,602) 95% CI (15.9 to 16.1) of respondents had an unscheduled episode in the previous four weeks and this remained stable over time (p = 0.170). There was an increased use of telephone help lines over the five years, reflecting the change in service provision (p = 0.008). However, there was no change in use of traditional services over this time period. Respondents were most likely to seek help from general practitioners (GPs), family and friends, and pharmacists, used by 9.0%, 7.2% and 6.3% respectively of the 5815 respondents in 2002. Most episodes involved contact with a single service only: 7.0% (2363/33,602) of the population had one contact and 2% (662/33,602) had three or more contacts per episode. GPs were the most frequent point of first contact with services.
conclusionIntroducing new services to the provision of unscheduled care did not affect the use of traditional services. A large majority of the population continued to turn to their GP for unscheduled health care.
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