Table 1 Features of general practitioner (GP) cooperatives in the Netherlands [1]
From: Association between general practice characteristics and use of out-of-hours GP cooperatives
Theme | Feature |
|---|---|
General | Out-of-hours primary care is provided by large-scale general practitioner (GP) cooperatives |
Participation of 50–250 GPs per cooperative with a mean of 4 hours on call per week | |
Circa 125 GP cooperatives in the Netherlands | |
Population of 100,000 to 500,000 patients | |
Out-of-hours defined as daily from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. and the entire weekend | |
Location | GP cooperative usually situated in or near a hospital |
Distance of patients to GP cooperative maximally 30 km | |
Accessibility | Access via a single regional telephone number, meaning the first contact mostly is with a triage nurse (only 5-10% walk in without a call in advance) |
Telephone triage by nurses supervised by GPs: contacts are divided into telephone advice, centre consult, or GP home visit | |
Facilities | Drivers in identifiable GP cars that are fully equipped (e.g. oxygen, intra venous drip equipment, automated external defibrillator, medication) |
Information and communication technology (ICT) support including electronic patient files, online connection to the GP car, and sometimes connection with the electronic medical record in the GP daily practice |