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Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: OBJECTIVE, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Acute Disease, After-Hours Care, Ambulatory Care Facilities, Chi-Square Distribution, Family Practice, Humans, Primary Health Care, Retrospective Studies, Triage, Western Australia, Workload.
user
Are after-hours general practice clinics unlikely to reduce low acuity patient attendances to metropolitan Perth emergency departments? Context: To model the effectiveness of after-hours general practice (GP) in reducing metropolitan Perth emergency departments' (ED) low acuity patient (LAP) attendances and costs. We estimated LAP attendances by comparison of the product of (A) the difference between self-referred and GP-referred ED discharge rates and (B) total self-referred attendances (LAP attendances = A x B). We then compared after-hours ED LAP attendance rates and costs with inner metropolitan "working-week" ED LAP attendance rates and costs, when GP services are maximally available. Working-week LAP attendances comprised 8.2% (95% CI, 8.0%-8.4%) of inner metropolitan ED attendances. Excess weekend and evening LAP attendances were estimated to comprise 16.5% (95%CI, 15.9%-17.0%) and 4.5% (95%CI, 4.1%-4.9%) of outer and inner metropolitan ED attendances respectively and totalled less than 3.0% of ED costs.
assistant
Low acuity patients form a relatively constant, inexpensive proportion of ED workloads. After-hours GP LAP services are unlikely to significantly reduce ED attendances or costs. Final Decision: yes