ArticleEmergency medicine journal : EMJ2015
Do difficulties in accessing in-hours primary care predict higher use of out-of-hours GP services? Evidence from an English National Patient Survey.
Article in Emergency medicine journal : EMJ, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- General practice consultation patterns and patient factors predicting older patients' use of out-of-hours services: a nationwide register-based cohort study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Why do patients attend out-of-hours GP services in Ireland?Irish journal of medical science · 2025Article
- Patients' Use of e-Consultations as an Alternative to Other General Practitioner Services: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- The need for a broad perspective when assessing value-for-money for out-of-hours primary care.Primary health care research & development · 2024Review
- Telephone advice lines for adults with advanced illness and their family carers: a qualitative analysis and novel practical framework.Palliative medicine · 2024Article
- How sensitive are avoidable emergency department attendances to primary care quality? Retrospective observational study.BMJ quality & safety · 2021Observational
- Management of non-urgent paediatric emergency department attendances by GPs: a retrospective observational study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2021Observational
- Advanced Access scheduling in general practice and use of primary care: a Danish population-based matched cohort study.BJGP open · 2020Article
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- '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
- Characteristics and patient pathways of Lyme disease patients: a retrospective analysis of hospital episode data in England and Wales (1998-2015).BMC public health · 2019Article
- No such thing as bad publicity? A quantitative content analysis of print media representations of primary care out-of-hours services.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Associations Between the Use of eHealth and Out-of-Hours Services in People With Type 1 Diabetes: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Article
- Emergency Department Use and Enrollment in a Medical Home Providing After-Hours Care.Annals of family medicine · 2018Article
- Preschool children in out-of-hours primary care - a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study of factors related to the medical relevance of health problems.BMC family practice · 2017Article
- Medical appropriateness of adult calls to Danish out-of-hours primary care: a questionnaire-based survey.BMC family practice · 2017Article
- Emergency hospital admissions for asthma and access to primary care: cross-sectional analysis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2016Article
- Access to primary care and the route of emergency admission to hospital: retrospective analysis of national hospital administrative data.BMJ quality & safety · 2016Article
- Research into practice: accessing primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
introductionIt is believed that some patients are more likely to use out-of-hours primary care services because of difficulties in accessing in-hours care, but substantial evidence about any such association is missing.
methodsWe analysed data from 567,049 respondents to the 2011/2012 English General Practice Patient Survey who reported at least one in-hours primary care consultation in the preceding 6 months. Of those respondents, 7% also reported using out-of-hours primary care. We used logistic regression to explore associations between use of out-of-hours primary care and five measures of in-hours access (ease of getting through on the telephone, ability to see a preferred general practitioner, ability to get an urgent or routine appointment and convenience of opening hours). We illustrated the potential for reduction in use of out-of-hours primary care in a model where access to in-hours care was made optimal.
resultsWorse in-hours access was associated with greater use of out-of-hours primary care for each access factor. In multivariable analysis adjusting for access and patient characteristic variables, worse access was independently associated with increased out-of-hours use for all measures except ease of telephone access. Assuming these associations were causal, we estimated that an 11% relative reduction in use of out-of-hours primary care services in England could be achievable if access to in-hours care were optimal.
conclusionsThis secondary quantitative analysis provides evidence for an association between difficulty in accessing in-hours care and use of out-of-hours primary care services. The findings can motivate the development of interventions to improve in-hour access.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.