Frequent users are people who contact the GP emergency room more than 20 times a year. Although only 6 in 10,000 patients of the GP emergency room were frequent users in 2022, they were still responsible for 2% of all contacts. This allows them to play a role in increasing the pressure on healthcare through the posts. This is evident from research by Nivel on GP emergency posts with data from Nivel Primary Care Registers.
If you have an acute health problem and cannot wait until your own GP is available again, you can contact the GP emergency post in the evening, at night and at weekends. During the first telephone conversation, the emergency room triage nurse assesses the urgency of the problem and provides follow-up care. This may include advice from the triage nurse, a consultation at the GP emergency post or a visit.
One in four contacts of frequent users took place because of psychological problems
Frequent users who contact the GP emergency room due to psychological problems usually do so because of anxiety complaints. Although this concerns a small group of patients, the impact on the postal service can still be significant due to the high frequency of contacts. It differs per GP emergency post as to what care they use to help this group of patients as best as possible. Some have close collaboration with mental health care (GGZ), others have a mental health practice assistant (POH-GGZ) as a backup to call the patient back. Further research can provide insight into the effect on the healthcare burden of these types of measures at GP emergency departments.
Frequent users come to the GP emergency room more often with non-urgent care questions
The urgency assigned during triage is low in half of the cases for frequent users. This is more common than among infrequent GP emergency post users. There, a third of the contacts were of low urgency. Of the frequent users, three quarters are helped immediately by the triage nurse. As a result, the burden on physical care may not be that great, but the pressure on the triage nurse is even greater.
About the research
For this study, registered care data from general practitioner emergency posts from 2022, from Nivel Zorgregistries Eerste Lijn, were used. This concerned data from 28 GP service structures (organisations of GP emergency posts).
2024-01-25 09:08:39
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