Out of hours referrals: A research study exploring and examining the variations in the performance of GPs managing ‘out of hours’ referrals to hospital

This study examines the factors that influence whether General Practitioners working in out of hours care are relative high, average or low referrers to hospital. The study has two parts funded at present: Part 1 is an audit of GP referrals from one out-of-hours cooperative, exploring variation in referrals to secondary care. The audit includes 193 GPs who worked for Nordoc between 2001 and 2004 and identifies a large variation in referrals by GPs. Part 2 of the study is a qualitative study exploring GPs referral behaviour in out-of-hours work and their attitudes to referrals to hospital. The project runs from May 2005 to May 2006.