ZHCo-PeriScaldes wants to reduce the pressure on GP emergency rooms and is launching a colourful campaign

28-02-2022 -

‘We want everyone to know that the out-of-hours GP service is really only for emergencies’

PRESS RELEASE

Heinkenszand, 28 February 2023

People often make unnecessary visits to the GP emergency rooms (HAP) in Zeeland. That puts a lot of pressure on these posts. That has to change, according to ZHCo-PeriScaldes, the organization that facilitates the HAP on Walcheren, the Bevelanden and Schouwen-Duiveland. With a colourful campaign, she wants to create awareness that the HAP is really only intended for emergencies within GP care.

GP emergency stations for 20 years

General practitioners in Zeeland work together to make emergency care possible in the evening, night and weekend hours, when the GP practice is closed. To this end, ZHCo-PeriScaldes facilitates three GP emergency posts (HAP): HAP Walcheren (Middelburg), HAP Bevelanden (Goes) and HAP Schouwen-Duiveland (Zierikzee). The organization is proud that this collaboration has been going well for 20 years this year. It requires close cooperation from the GPs, a lot of planning and a large group of support staff to ensure that everyone can always go for emergency care.

Unnecessarily busy

But it’s busy at the emergency rooms, busier than it needs to be. The unnecessarily high workload at the HAP poses a threat to the provision of high-quality care and can lead to longer waiting times. There may come a tipping point where even more doctors are needed for the HAP. That, while there is already a shortage of GPs at regular times.

“The fact that the HAP is there for emergency care is not clear to everyone. There is a group of people who cannot properly assess what is an emergency, and what can wait. It is important to emphasize that the GP emergency station is only there for general practitioner care during evening, night and weekend hours,” says Nicole le Duc, manager of GP posts at ZHCo-PeriScaldes. The organization also puts its own house in order: “A visit to the GP emergency station apparently feels accessible to people. That’s partly good, but if you don’t know that it’s only for emergencies, the threshold may be too low.”

Who is the HAP for? Only if it’s URGENTserious!

ZHCo-PeriScaldes now wants to make it clear through a campaign that the HAP is really only for emergencies, “Only if it is URGENTserious!”. By means of cartoons with a friendly wink, common situations are portrayed in a humorous way. For example, a man with a serious injury proudly wants to go to the HAP, because he knows that he has every reason to ask for help there. But there is also a desperate, new mother with a screaming baby on the line. Does she really need the HAP? A new cartoon will be released every month for six months.

“The reasons why people end up at the HAP unnecessarily are very different, from convenience to misunderstanding, and we hope to use the different cartoons to portray the diversity of the problem. Everyone can understand these situations and for each message we hope to address the right people and they become aware of their own behaviour.”

Online checklist

The HAP can of course be called. Expert triage nurses will then carefully consider whether urgent care is needed. But if everyone does an online check first, this significantly reduces the pressure on the telephone lines. The website www.huisartsenspoedpostzeeland.nl has a handy checklist to quickly assess whether something is an emergency and advises when someone should call the HAP (or even 112) or can just go to the GP practice later.

ZHCo-PeriScaldes is the result of collaborating general practitioners and is committed to providing high-quality multidisciplinary GP care in the regions of De Bevelanden, Schouwen-Duiveland and Walcheren.

For more information: Johan Schaeffer, Communications Advisor, j.schaeffer@zhco-periscaldes.nl, 06 5719 3118

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