To the Editor: The recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) statistics on emergency department (ED) care show that 38% of attendances from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012 were potential general practice presentations.1 This indicator is reported under the National Healthcare Agreement. Both the AIHW and Council of Australian Governments acknowledge that this method is flawed and have agreed to review this indicator.2 To date, this has not been done.
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- 1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian hospital statistics 2011–12: emergency department care. (AIHW Cat. No. HSE 126. Health services series.) Canberra: AIHW, 2012. http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=10737423042 (accessed Nov 2012).
- 2. Council of Australian Governments. National partnership agreement on hospital and health workforce reform. http://www.ahwo.gov.au/documents/COAG/National%20Partnership% 20Agreement%20on%20Hospital%20and%20Health%20Workforce%20Reform.pdf (accessed Nov 2012).
- 3. Nagree Y, Mountain D, Cameron P, et al. Determining the true burden of general practice patients in the emergency department: the need for robust methodology. Emerg Med Australas 2011; 23: 116-119.
- 4. Sprivulis P. Estimation of the general practice workload of a metropolitan teaching hospital emergency department. Emerg Med (Fremantle) 2003; 15: 32-37.
- 5. Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. Fact sheet re: urban emergency services — ATS 4 and 5 patients. Melbourne: ACEM, 2001. http://www.acem.org.au/media/ats_4_5_factsheet.pdf (accessed Jan 2011).
- 6. Nagree Y, Cameron P, Gosbell A, Mountain D. Telephone triage is not the answer to ED overcrowding. Emerg Med Australas 2012; 24: 123-126.
- 7. Cunningham P, Sammut J. Inadequate acute hospital beds and the limits of primary care and prevention. Emerg Med Australas 2012; 24: 566-572.
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Yusuf Nagree, Andrew Gosbell, Sally McCarthy and David Mountain are on the Council of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.