[Evaluation of hospital emergency service attendance by patients from a basic health district]

To find the sociodemographic characteristics of patients registered at a Health Centre (HC) who attended a hospital Casualty Department, their reasons for attendance, features of their use of facilities and how justified their attendance was.

Descriptive study.

Urban Health Centre, Llefià (Badalona), between February and June, 1995.

We used a questionnaire composed by the research team to survey 360 patients over 14 who attended the HC with a report from a Casualty Department.

The variables recorded were: sociodemographic characteristics, reasons for attending Casualty, whether they attended on their own initiative, whether they knew about non-hospital Emergencies, the hospital, day and time, chronic pathology, diagnosis and destination on discharge from Casualty, length of stay and justification. 53.7% were women. 57.8% were married. 95% lived with a partner or intimate family member, 56.9% had completed primary education and 39.4% had jobs. 41% suffered a chronic pathology. Monday was the busiest day and physical trauma was the most frequent diagnosis on discharge. We considered 54.7% of all the consultations non-justified emergencies.

There is a high percentage of users who attend Casualty on their own initiative. Most of the emergencies are unjustified.