Paediatric attendances of the emergency department in a major Irish tertiary referral centre before and after expansion of free GP care to children under 6: a retrospective observational study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To examine the characteristics of paediatric attendances to the emergency department (ED) in Cork University Hospital (CUH) before and after the expansion of free general practitioner (GP) care to children under the age of 6 years.

Design

This is a retrospective observational study that used a large administrative dataset.

Setting

The study was conducted in major Irish tertiary referral centre that serves a total population of over 1.1 million. It is a public hospital, owned and managed by the health service executive.

Participants

Children aged 0-15 years who attended CUH ED during the study period of 6 years (2012-2018) were included in this study (n=76 831).

Interventions

Free GP care was expanded to all children aged 0-5 years in July 2015

SUBMITTER: Korotchikova I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7893646 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature