Use of emergency health care in lieu of GP service

As noted in the overview of themes emerging from the consultations with parent of

3-year-olds, several focus group participants expressed frustration at being unable to

get timely appointments with their GP. While the issue of unmet need due to the

inability to get an appointment should be covered by continuing questions, some

parents in the consultation were resorting to emergency care in lieu of a routine GP

appointment. Such emergency options included out-of-hours GP care, emergency

departments and clinics run by private health insurance companies.

This is a potentially important policy and practice issue, especially in light of the

investment in free GP visits for children under 8 years. It could also mean additional

pressure on emergency health services from issues that should have been dealt with

by a routine GP appointment. It would, therefore, be useful to at least pilot a new

question on this specific topic for Cohort 24 at 3 years to get a better idea of how

widespread the practice is.

Recommendation for Cohort 24 at 3 years:

•Include an additional question for the primary caregiver in the main questionnaire, in the section with other healthcare utilisation items, to the effect of, “how many times in the past year have you used an emergency health care service, such as an out-of-hours GP service, because you were unable to get a regular GP appointment for ?”

Biomarkers