Out of hours primary care – a high risk practice?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding patient mortality in the month following contact with the out of hours service: a data-linkage study.
IRAS ID
189964
Contact name
Rebecca F R Fisher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 0 days
Research summary
The contract between general practices and the government requires GP surgeries to be open from 08:00 to 18:30 on weekdays. Care outside this period is provided by out of hours services (OOH). In recent years the challenges faced in the provision of safe OOH care have been well documented, both in the media and by the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Urgent Care Commission.
Our study aims:
(i) To establish the proportion of patients dying over the course of a year in Oxfordshire who are assessed by the Oxfordshire Out of Hours service in the four weeks prior to their death.
(ii) To evaluate whether there are clinical and demographic features which could help distinguish patient subgroups at higher risk of death within 4 weeks of contact with the out of hours service.By linking mortality data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre with OOH records for Oxfordshire we can identify all people who have died in Oxfordshire in a 12 month period, and then establish whether they had made contact with the OOH service in the four weeks before their death. Using the OOH electronic record will allow us to record demographic and clinical information on this group, such as age, social deprivation, and the outcome of the contact with the OOH service. We will also look specifically at those patients who did not contact the service due to end of life issues. Understanding the proportion of patients who die who had been seen by the OOH service within four weeks of their death, and any features which could help clinicians identify those patients who are at greater risk of dying unexpectedly, is an important step towards improving patient safety in the OOH service
REC name
South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0754
Date of REC Opinion
24 Dec 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion