The homeless in the emergency department: a patient profile
Abstract
To explore the possibility that homeless people use the accident and emergency (A&E) department as a substitute for primary care and to quantify the role of alcohol abuse in their attendances. The study period lasted six months. Attendances of all patients registering with "No fixed abode" as their address were analysed from the A&E notes. Information gathered included details of the presenting complaint, general practitioner (GP) registration, and alcohol involvement in the presentation. 135 homeless patients attended the department 233 times; 91% of patients were male with an average age of 40 years; 46% of attendances were during office hours; 81.5% of presentations were for minor problems; 65.2% of patients had co-existing medical problems, with 14.8% having a chronic alcohol problem; 23.7% of patients gave details of their GP and the remainder were either not registered or did not know their GP registration status; 29.6% of attendances directly involved alcohol and another 10.3% were requests for inpatient or outpatient alcohol detoxification; 42.1% of patients questioned said they were aware of the medical facilities available to homeless people in the community; 52.6% of those questioned said they preferred being seen in...Continue Reading
References
Citations
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Addiction
This feed focuses mechanisms underlying addiction and addictive behaviour including heroin and opium dependence, alcohol intoxication, gambling, and tobacco addiction.