Non-urgent emergency department attendances in children

Attendances to the Emergency Department in children and young people are increasing, but little is known about the characteristics of these attendances and what proportion are suitable for care in alternative care settings i.e. Non-Urgent Attendances (NUAs). A better picture of the problem of NUAs is required, including defining the numbers involved and the characteristics of the attendances, such as time presenting and age profiles. This analysis applied an algorithm to a large routine Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) dataset to achieve this aim.

The next stage of this work is to examine those children’s ED attendances who present via NHS 111 to better understand the access points and opportunities for intervention.

More information and further contact

Journal article reporting findings of the study can be found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8717488/

For more information on this project, contact Colin O’Keeffe at c.okeeffe@sheffield.ac.uk