GP co-operatives and walk-in centres to reduce attendance at emergency departments
Citation: Crawford J, Cooper S, Cant R, DeSouza R. The impact of walk-in centres and GP co-operatives on emergency department presentations: A systematic review of the literature. International Emergency Nursing 2017; 34: 36-42
Free to view: Yes – until 31st December 2020.
What is this? The COVID-19 pandemic has increased demand on hospital emergency departments. Research into alternative ways of managing less urgent cases (such as walk-in centers and General Practitioner cooperatives) may provide information that would help ease this demand.
In this systematic review, the authors searched for research on the effects of walk-in centers and General Practitioner (GP) cooperatives on local ED attendances. They restricted their search to articles published in English between 2000 and 2014. They included 4 studies of walk-in centres (all done in the UK) and 7 studies of GP cooperatives (which were done in Australia (1 study), Ireland (1), The Netherlands (4) and Switzerland (1)).
What works: GP cooperatives significantly reduced non-urgent ED attendances.
What doesn’t work: Nothing noted.
What’s uncertain: The effects of walk-in centers on ED attendance are uncertain.