New group looks to address urgent care needs

The Chair of a new Specific Interest Group (SIG) has told newsGP he hopes to inspire improvement in the approach to urgent and emergency care in Australia.
 
Associate Professor John Adie is the inaugural Chair of the new RACGP Specific Interests Urgent and Emergency Presentations to Primary Care, which was recently endorsed by the college board.
 
The SIG aims to promote the provision of services in after-hours general practice and urgent care clinics, with its remit including advocacy to upskill staff, and push for the right legislation, funding and standards to support non-life-threatening urgent conditions being treated in primary care.
 
Associate Professor Adie said he was enthusiastic when the possibility for a dedicated SIG on the topic was first raised.
 
‘The reason I got excited is that urgent care is not in Australia to the same extent as in [other] Western countries,’ he said.
 
‘There is a need to inform GPs, and even the public, as well as ACEM [Australasian College for Emergency Medicine] and ACRRM – about what urgent care is.
 
‘I want the group to inspire better management of urgent and emergent presentations.’
 
With both Federal and state-level governments introducing and expanding urgent care centres around Australia, Associate Professor Adie says the group’s formation is ‘of the moment’.
 
Fifty urgent care centres were promised as an election commitment by the Federal Government in 2022, with state government administrations also investing substantially in the same area.
 
Associate Professor Adie is careful to make the distinction between extended hours general practice and urgent care.
 
‘[The SIG is] not only looking at urgent care, it’s also looking at general practice,’ he said.
 
‘There’s a lot of crossover, but they’re two different beasts, they basically do different things.
 
‘There’s more evidence for after-hours general practice, just because there’s more studies being done, like the King’s Fund in England.
 
‘There was a whole bunch in London, and they did really well in decreased hospital admissions.
 
‘So, general practice options do work but urgent care options provide for a wider range of urgent conditions than extended hours general practice, especially when you’re talking about things like minor injuries.’
 
Research on the impact of after-hours care models in the UK has suggest ED presentations were reduced by 9.9% among a practice’s patients during the week and 17.9% on weekends. A US study, meanwhile, indicated ED presentations fell by 17% with an urgent care centre located near to patients’ homes.
 
Recent figures also suggest the number of patients turning up to hospital with non-life-threatening urgent conditions is increasing significantly, with an estimated 10–25% of presentations – rising to 41–57% in paediatric ED presentations – involving non-life-threatening urgent conditions.
 
These could be treated in evidence-based primary care models in the community if they were available, according to the evidence put forward for the establishment of the SIG.
 
‘It’s nice if we can look after our patients in the community, especially in the general practice that they attend,’ Associate Professor Adie said. ‘We’re trying to promote research on that.’
 
Having also previously spoken to newsGP about his support for urgent care clinical standards, Associate Professor Adie says he would like to see a similar model adopted in Australia as is already in place in his native New Zealand.
 
Pushing that forward, and working with the different stakeholder groups, is another key function of the group, the University of the Sunshine Coast associate professor says.
 
A newsGP poll earlier this year indicated that 61% of readers also supported urgent care centres having their own nationalised clinical standards.
 
Already, Associate Professor Adie has wasted no time in his role, offering resources for GPs looking to broaden their urgent care skills, including a recent course for fracture management run in Melbourne.
 
He says any GP can get involved in the new SIG, and particularly encourages those interested in pursuing a career in urgent care.
 
For more information on the Specific Interests Urgent and Emergency Presentations to Primary Care and details on how to get involved, see the RACGP website.
 
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