The open access ENT casualty service.

The ENT specialist's experience of emergencies is usually influenced by a process of prior selection in the GP surgery or in a general Casualty Department. A survey of 1,000 consecutive patients presenting to a 24 hour open access ENT Casualty service is presented. For a variety of reasons, over half of these patients had never sought their G.P.'s advice for their ENT complaint but preferred the hospital service. The value of even a brief exposure to ENT casualty work for GP trainees is demonstrated.