Emergency doctors call for more patients to be diverted from A&E to general practice

Too many patients are seeing emergency departments as an alternative to primary care and need to be diverted back to GP services, the College of Emergency Medicine has told a government review into urgent and emergency care.

In a written submission to the review of urgent and emergency care services being led by the NHS’s medical director, Bruce Keogh,1 the college said that too many patients were turning up at emergency departments when they did not need to be there and could be treated more cost efficiently by other services.2

Between 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 the number of people attending emergency departments rose by 250 000, and the college attributes much of this rise to increasing patient expectations and …