Accident and emergency services--the contribution of the community hospital.

A survey of attendances in one year at a community hospital accident and emergency department in Redcar was undertaken to determine the clinical conditions treated and their severity, the number of cases referred to the major accident centre or to an appropriate specialist, and the reasons why patients chose to attend for treatment at the community hospital. Minor trauma accounted for many of the 7,557 attendances (4,916 patients); 5% were medical and non-traumatic surgical cases. One third of the patients had hand injuries. There were 1,765 patients (36%) referred for specialist care or follow-up. Nearly half of the patients gave no reason for choosing to seek treatment at the community hospital and most of the remainder attended because of difficulty in getting access to their general practitioner or practice surgery when the injury/illness occurred.