Study 2025-03-HSR Organisation of unplanned acute care

Planned study - This project concerns the evaluation of unplanned acute care, and more specifically of the interrelationship between the growing number of visits to emergency departments, the 1733 telephone triage system, the functioning of general medical practices outside working hours and the reduction in the provision of general medical services.

This study will examine the link between the organisation of general medical out-of-hours services (location, available staff, opening hours, collaboration with the emergency department, etc.) and the number of contacts with emergency services in Belgium. It will rely on a documentary analysis of organisational models that exist abroad, an analysis of data (contacts with emergency services, location of on-call services and demographic data), qualitative interviews with stakeholders and a survey of on-call services in order to draw up a picture of the different organisational models that exist in the field. The scoping phase of the study will allow for a more in-depth examination of the methodology and the feasibility of relevant recommendations.