New Zealand Healthline call data used to measure the effect of travel time on the use of the emergency department

- Attendance to emergency departments (ED) is higher for people living less than 5 min away.
- Travel times and ED attendance is not confound by deprivation.
- Even when there is a clear need to visit an ED, only around 30% of people actually attend.
- 40 min drive time from an ED is the threshold between good and poor accessibility.

Telephone triage is a health tool increasingly used to connect geographically distant populations. Such services are also utilised to address issues of Emergency Department (ED) overuse. New Zealand's tele-triage service, Healthline, has existed since 2001 but is yet to be the focus of analysis. This research sought to understand the role that travel time to ED had upon Healthline users' compliance with telephone advice. Additionally, the role of deprivation in Healthline (as a determinant of caller behaviour) was examined. Travel time to ED was found to influence the impact of Healthline advice upon callers but this was not confounded by deprivation. Those living closest to the ED were more likely to attend when advised to, and less likely to stay away if told to avoid the ED. Different time brackets showed stronger trends, suggesting that callers at varying distances from EDs may be more or less influenced by both travel time and Healthline advice.