ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2025
Safety-netting advice documentation in out-of-hours primary care: a retrospective cohort from 2013 to 2020.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Safety-netting communication during telephone consultations: an observational study using recorded consultations.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Observational
- Patterns of diagnostic testing for oesophagogastric cancer-related symptoms in Australian primary care: a retrospective cohort study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Acutely ill children, safety netting, and NHS printers.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Safety netting in primary care: managing the low incidence, high uncertainty of severe illness.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Safety-netting advice documentation in out-of-hours primary care: a retrospective cohort from 2013 to 2020.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundProviding safety-netting advice (SNA) in out-of-hours (OOH) primary care is a recognised standard of safe care, but it is not known how frequently this occurs in practice.
aimAssess the frequency and type of SNA documented in OOH primary care and explore factors associated with its presence. DESIGN AND
settingThis was a retrospective cohort study using the Birmingham Out-of-hours general practice Research Database.
methodA stratified sample of 30 adult consultation records per month from July 2013 to February 2020 were assessed using a safety-netting coding tool. Associations were tested using linear and logistic regression.
resultsThe overall frequency of SNA per consultation was 78.0% (1472/1886), increasing from 75.7% (224/296) in 2014 to 81.5% (220/270) in 2019. The proportion of specific SNA and the average number of symptoms patients were told to look out for increased with time. The most common symptom to look out for was if the patients' condition worsened followed by if their symptoms persisted, but only one in five consultations included a timeframe to reconsult for persistent symptoms. SNA was more frequently documented in face-to-face treatment-centre encounters compared with telephone consultations (odds ratio [OR] 1.77, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09 to 2.85,
conclusionThe frequency of SNA documented in OOH primary care was higher than previously reported during in-hours care. Over time, the frequency of SNA and proportion that contained specific advice increased, however, this study highlights potential consultations where SNA could be improved, such as mental health and telephone consultations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.