Drivers of urgent & emergency care use in Greater Manchester & Lancs
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Why do people go to the Emergency Department for less serious issues during nights and weekends in Greater Manchester and Lancashire?
IRAS ID
335073
Contact name
Beng So
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
The aim of the study is to carry out qualitative interviews to investigate the perceptions and experiences of patients and staff of using emergency department (ED) services to gain an understanding of the reasons people are more likely to attend out of hours for non-urgent conditions.
Previous research has indicated that various factors including deprivation and lack of access to primary care services may be implicated but we want to find out more about local drivers in our areas of investigation.
Adult patients aged between 18 and 75 years old self-presenting or attending to the ED at Manchester University Foundation Trust (MFT), Lancashire Teaching Hospital (Royal Preston Hospital, RPH) and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals (BVH) with non-urgent conditions who are triaged and assigned blue and green triage category (the least urgent categories) at ED will be eligible to participate in the study. Clinical staff working with the ED of RPH, BVH and MFT will also be included. Interviews will take place online or telephone and will be audio recorded. Interviews will last approximately one hour. We hope to interview between 20 and 25 patients and between 5 and 10 ED staff members across the three sites or until we achieve sufficient responses.
We envisage that the study will approximately last for one year.REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/EE/0269
Date of REC Opinion
30 Jan 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion