Effect of patients seeing a general practitioner in accident and emergency on their subsequent reattendance: cohort study

General practitioners working in an accident and emergency department manage non-emergency patients safely and use fewer resources than do usual accident and emergency staff. 1 2 In our previous study we speculated that this intervention might have the potential to break the cycle of "inappropriate attendance" at accident and emergency, use of hospital resources, and perceived confirmation of need for a visit. 2 We now report the results of a review of the reattendance rates of our original study group.