Reasons for attending a general emergency outpatient clinic versus a regular general practitioner - a survey among immigrant and native walk-in patients in Oslo, Norway.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To explore reasons for attending a general emergency outpatient clinic versus a regular general practitioner (RGP).

Design

Cross-sectional study using a multilingual anonymous questionnaire.

Setting

Native and immigrant walk-in patients attending a general emergency outpatient clinic in Oslo (Monday-Friday, 08:00-23:00) during 2 weeks in September 2009.

Subjects

We included 1022 walk-in patients: 565 native Norwegians (55%) and 457 immigrants (45%).

Main outcome measures

Patients' reasons for attending an emergency outpatient clinic versus their RGP.

Results

Among patients reporting an RGP affiliation, 49% tried to contact their RGP before this emergency encounter: 44% of native Norwegian and 58% of immigrant respondents. Immigrants from

SUBMITTER: Ruud SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5361418 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature