Background Emergency department (ED) attendance rates are on the increase, with a rise from 18.8 million in 2005–2006 to 20.2 million in 2015–2016. Over the last 3 years the government have introduced an increase in access to primary care opening times and services such as 111. However little is known about how this has impacted the number of patients attending emergency departments.

Objective The objective of the current study was to explore patients’ knowledge and use of alternative care centres, such as 111 or general practice prior to attending the ED. By asking patients to complete an anonymous questionnaire this gave patients the opportunity to provide uninfluenced answers as to whether they attempted to access alternatives. It also allowed us the opportunity to collate large amounts of data in a fast and efficient manner.

Method Patients attending a city centre emergency department were triaged by an ED nurse on arrival; some reviewed were categorised with a non-urgent illness suitable to be seen by primary care services in the department. From these, 391 patients completed a 6 item questionnaire. Patients were asked about their attempts to access primary care services prior to attending the emergency department, whether they found it more convenient and if they would re-attend the ED with this problem in the future.

Results Of the patients that completed the survey 335 had their own registered general practitioner. Three hundred and nine were aware of 111 services yet only 38% of these patients had attempted to access these services prior to attending the emergency department. Other significant findings indicate that 79.5% of patients answered found the emergency department more convenient than other services. Finally 87% of patients said that they would re-attend the emergency problem with a similar problem in the future.

Conclusions These findings suggest a large proportion of patients surveyed had not attempted to access alternative services. These data suggest that patients do not access alternative services because they find the ED more convenient to use. Despite having been referred to and seen by a GP almost all the patients completing the survey said that they would re-attend the department in the future with the same problem. These findings suggest the importance of access to GP services within the ED.