Saturday surgeries--do patients feel their needs can be met by alternative out-of-hours care? A questionnaire study.

There is a trend in the United Kingdom (UK) towards using out-of-hours cover to replace Saturday surgeries. This study asks patients their views about alternative cover. Seventy-five questionnaires were collected from 125 patients attending Saturday surgery sessions (response rate = 60%) over 6 weeks. Sixty-four (85.3%) patients felt they needed urgent attention, and 64 (85.3%) felt that any of the doctors could deal with them. The most popular alternatives were routine appointments and being seen by the deputising doctor, both of which were preferred by 20 (26.7%) patients. Changing Saturday surgeries to using deputising cover is, on the whole, acceptable to patients.