Why do patients with minor or moderate conditions that could be managed in other settings attend the emergency department?

friends or family’.

Conclusions Although there appears to be considerable potential for minor conditions to be managed in settings other than the ED, our findings indicate that patients will continue to present these conditions to the ED. Patient perceptions of the urgency of their treatment need, and also the availability and capacity of alternative services may be offsetting their potential to substitute for the ED. Advice from other services may be contributing to demands on the ED.

Emergency services utilisation patients health beliefs help seeking behaviour minor health conditions appropriateness emergency care systems intermediate care emergency departments Footnotes Competing interests None.

Ethics approval This study was conducted with the approval of the Doncaster NHS ethics committee.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.