Emergency departments and minor illness: some behavioural insights

The 1999 Report ‘Accident and Emergency Services for Children’ was published by a collaboration of several Royal Colleges and national organisations, and it was a major driver for accident and emergency departments (ED) to become more expertly child-focused. The paediatric emergency department (PED) provides an environment that is more suitable for young ages, shielding the child and family from the sights, sounds and smells of the adult ED, and staffed by nurses and doctors with specialist child health training.

Yet now, NHS emergency services are creaking under enormous and increasing demands placed on it by the public. In England, 40% of all ED attendances are non-urgent (60% in the case of children), where the unwell person could be self-managed at home. Accident and Emergency (A&E) attendance costs nearly £100 m in 2011–2012 with ED on average being 36% more than an equivalent general practice (GP) visit.

The waiting time target,...

from Archives of Disease in Childhood current issue http://ift.tt/2prLTHw