Out-of-hours demand for GP care and emergency services: patients' choices and referrals by general practitioners and ambulance services

Table 5 Age and sex of patients contacting the out-of-hours services, compared with the population of Velsen and the Dutch population.

	All out-of-hours contacts				Population of Velsen*				Population of the Netherlands*
	1997–8		2002–3		1997–8		2002–3		1997–8		2002–3
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Sex
Male	2975	47.4	2830	47.1	29877	49.1	30627	49.2	7740074	49.4	8015471	49.5
Female	3286	52.4	3168	52.7	31013	50.9	31664	50.8	7914118	50.6	8177101	50.5
Missing	9	<1	8	<1
Age bands (years)
0–4	1244	19.8	940	15.7	4251	7.0	4086	6.6	969367	6.2	1022613	6.3
5–14	600	9.6	605	10.1	7247	11.9	8195	13.2	1913563	12.2	1987475	12.3
15–44	2287	36.5	2104	35.0	25353	41.6	24325	39.1	6951802	44.4	6858760	42.4
45–64	967	15.4	1005	16.7	13841	22.7	15360	24.7	3709741	23.7	4103268	25.3
≥65	1172	18.7	1352	22.5	10198	16.7	10325	16.6	2109719	13.5	2220456	13.7
Total	6270	100.0	6006	100.0	60890	100.0	62291	100.0	15654192	100.0	16192572	100.0

*1 January 1998 and 1 January 2003
The data provided represent demographic characteristics of patients contacting the out-of-hours services in the municipality of Velsen (study data), the total population of Velsen (data from the local council of Velsen) and the total Dutch population (data from the Office of National Statistics (CBS)).

ISSN: 2731-4553