Table 4 Patient Interview Guide

Experience/reasoning for visiting the ED

• I’m interested on the day that you went to the emergency department, can you explain to me how you were feeling that day and what led you to seek help in the emergency department?

• How long had you been experiencing symptoms?

• Did you seek any help from any other health service for the problem (111/ooh GP/ local GP)?

• What made you decide to come to the emergency department when you did, was it the amount of pain you were in, locality of hospital, urgency of treatment?

Expectations/Satisfaction

• Have you had much experience of going to an emergency department before?

• What kind of service did you expect when you went to the ED? (waiting time, tests to be done, treatment)

• Did you have any expectations or any preferences about who you might be seen by?

• Did you know that there were GPs working in the emergency department?

• How satisfied (or not) would you say you are with the care you received by the GP (or ED Staff)? You waited … to be seen and left at … .how do you feel about the length of time you were waiting?

Investigations/treatment

• If had tests - You had … …. (test), how did you feel about having to have this done?

• If no investigations – did you expect to get some tests done that were not done? If yes, how did you feel about that?

• The treatment you received was … … .were you happy with that?

• Would recommend the service to the friends and family … … … …

Follow up/ contact with health services after leaving ED

• The follow up advice you were given was … … … ..were you happy with that?

• What happened after you left the ED, did you need to go and see a GP in the community?

GP in ED vs GP in community

• You were seen by a GP and GPs are skilled in dealing with the problem that you have, would it have been a possibility for you to have visited your own GP for the problem? Would it have been easier or more difficult? (longer to access the service and get treated)

• What is it like trying to see a GP in the community?

• Did you know that you were going to be seen by a GP (or that you had been seen by a GP)?

• The GP gave you medication (similar to what a GP might have done in your surgery). What do you think might have happened if you had rang your GP surgery (or GP OOH) for the same problem? Do you think you would have got similar treatment in a similar time-frame?

Future intentions

• Where would you go to seek treatment if you had the same problem again? Would you come to the emergency department again? What would be the main reason that would influence your decision on where to go?

Views on GP services in ED

• What are your views on where GPs should be working? Do you think it is useful to have them in the emergency department?

• Some people might say that if they know there are GPs working in the emergency department it might be easier to see them there than go to a local surgery? What do you think about that?

• Do you think there might ever be a case of more people going to the emergency department to get seen by a GP?