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

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. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Paediatric attendances to CUH ED were examined before (Time Period 1: July 2012–June 2015) and after (Time Period 2: July 2015–June 2018) the expansion of free GP care to children under 6. Changes in GP referral rates and inpatient hospital admissions were investigated. RESULTS: Paediatric presentations to CUH ED increased from 35 819 during the Time Period 1 to 41 012 during the Time Period 2 (14.5%). The proportion of the CUH ED attendances through GP referrals by children under 6 increased by over 8% in the Time Period 2 (from 10 148 to 14 028). Although the number of all children who attended CUH ED and were admitted to hospital increased in Time Period 2 (from 8704 to 9320); the proportion of children in the 0–5 years group who attended the CUH ED through GP referral and were subsequently admitted to hospital, decreased by over 3%. CONCLUSION: The expansion of free GP care has upstream health service utilisation implications, such as increased attendances at ED, and should be considered and costed by policy-makers.