Background: The ENT emergency clinic enables acute conditions to be seen quickly, however, there is currently no ‘gold standard’ for its design.

Objectives: to improve the appropriateness of referrals and hence patient waiting times.

Methods: An initial survey, designed to appraise existing service, was completed for every patient seen from 9-20 October 2017.

Results: A total of 72 (M:F = 41:31) patients were reviewed; mean age 42 (1-95). The most frequently presenting complaints were otitis externa (36%), possible fractured nose (28%) and recurrent epistaxis (10%). Referrals were predominantly from A&E (57%) and GP (35%), however only 31% of patients referred by their GP had been started on treatment in primary care. An average of 9 patients were seen per clinic with an average wait of 24 minutes (0-150).

Conclusion: There exists a low level of treatment initiation in primary care which may be responsible for a number of unnecessary referrals.

The ENT emergency clinic - a prospective audit to improve the efficacy of service delivery