“Creating a Shared Vision of Out of Hours Care” – Professor Jeremy Dale et al.

Establishing new out of hours services involved substantial change in local health services and provides a unique opportunity for planning more integrated care.

– Dale et al. (1206)

In this paper, Professor Jeremy Dale and colleagues (including York St John’s Lynne Lacock) undertake a district wide review of out of hours primary health care services and identify the views of users and providers about current arrangements and options for development.

Overall there was widespread dissatisfaction with existing out of hours arrangements. Many general practitioners described out of hours work as being the most important stress in their professional lives. Views were often expressed in emotive terms, with several stating that unless a solution could be found they were unlikely to remain in general practice.

– Dale et al. (1208)

This paper can be downloaded here.