Many of the 4,600 people a week who attend hospital accident and emergency (A&E) departments could be treated more quickly by their family doctor, according to the Eastern Health Board.
The board yesterday launched its third annual campaign to persuade people to go to their doctors with minor ailments, rather than going straight to casualty.
The board's director for the Office for Health Gain, Mr Kieran Hickey, said there had been a 37 per cent increase in the numbers attending A&E departments between 1988 and 1996.
Last year there were 242,566 new attendances at hospital casualty departments in Dublin, an increase of about 1 per cent on the previous year.
One of the reasons that people went to hospitals was the cost of a casualty visit, Mr Hickey said. But the increase in the charge from £12 to £20 should eliminate this incentive.
The board also provided more care facilities for those patients who had finished acute medical treatment, Mr Hickey said.
Chairman of the Council of the Irish College of General Practitioners Dr Michael Coughlan said the 4,500 to 5,000 people attending A&E per week was a "frightening" figure. More than 80 per cent of those people were not detained for treatment, he said.
"Long waiting periods could be drastically reduced if the public were to think before proceeding to an A&E department." Dr Coughlan said ensuring that everyone was registered with a GP would help to reduce the numbers attending hospitals. "My final message to the public is: `Think GP before A&E.' "
The vice-president of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, Prof Conor Keane, said A&E departments were still extremely crowded and waiting times were still long. He said there was a need for research into why people attended hospitals and not their GPs.
Mr Pat Plunkett, A&E consultant at St James's Hospital in Dublin, said the hospital saw almost 50,000 new A&E patients a year.
Mr Plunkett said his view was that A&E departments should be renamed Emergency Departments.
"If people stub their toe they've had an accident, and they see no reason why they shouldn't attend an accident and emergency department." If it were to be renamed it would "really get home the issue that we are there to deal with emergencies".
He said hospitals were happy to deal with minor injuries. "But if they come in at 10 a.m. on a Monday morning I can almost guarantee they will have to wait six to eight hours to be seen."
