General principles of signposting and redirection

In order to ensure patients receive the right care by the service that is resourced to address their needs it is important that patients who attend the ED inappropriately are not treated but are directed to the appropriate agency within the Unscheduled Care Network. If we do not make the effort to do this then our work-load will unnecessarily increase, these patient’s may not receive the most appropriate care for their needs and it has a negative impact on the care we can provide to our core patient group.

Patient who fall into one or more of these four categories may not be best managed by the ED:

1. Condition that has been present for more than 3 days
2. Condition that the patient has already consulted their primary care team about (F2F or over the phone)
3. Conditions that are normally assessed and managed in the community such as chronic illnesses, family planning and repeat prescriptions
4. Conditions suitable for care by community services such as optician, dentists, pharmacy

During triage assessment the assessment nurse, with support from the Senior ED doctor, will decide whether the patient’s medical complaint is appropriate to be addressed by the ED. If not, they will be Signposted to a more appropriate service. Some of these patients may need more in-depth assessment and will be triaged fully assessed according to acuity.

Should you identify a patient who may be better managed by a community service please discuss the case with a Senior EM doctor as it is better for these patients to be directed to the correct service early rather than us in the ED to try to accommodate every issue or request.