• Shamini Gnani, Helen McDonald, Saiful Islam, Farzan Ramzan, Michele Davison, Tim Ladbrooke, Azeem Majeed, and Sonia Saxena.
• Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
• Emerg Med J. 2014 Aug 1; 31 (8): 630-6.

IntroductionAdolescence is a time of increasing health and peak fitness, as well as increasing health risks. In the UK, primary care is free at the point of access, yet, adolescents aged 10-19 years are the lowest users of primary care services, and disproportionately high users of emergency services. The effect of new general practitioner (GP)-led urgent care centres in meeting the needs of adolescents are unknown.MethodsWe used routinely collected data to describe the demographics and attendance pattern among adolescents at two new colocated GP-led urgent care centres at Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals, London. We also compared attendance rates with those observed in routine general practice and emergency departments.ResultsAdolescents formed 6.5% (N=14 038) of total urgent care attendances. 13.2% (95% CI 12.9% to 14.1%) was recorded as not being registered with a GP. Commonest reasons for attendance were musculoskeletal conditions and injuries (30.2%), respiratory tract infections (12.5%) and limb fractures (5.1%). Adolescents aged 15-19 years were more likely to attend the centres (30.6 vs 23.4, per 100, p<0.0001) than routine general practice. The opposite was true for adolescents aged 10-14 years.ConclusionsAdolescents aged 15-19 years are more likely to attend urgent care centres than general practice. The majority attended for conditions commonly seen in primary care including musculoskeletal conditions and injuries, and respiratory tract infections. Primary care services may need to be more responsive to needs of the older adolescent age, if their use of urgent care centres is to be reduced.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

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