Table 1

Hospital characteristics

Hospital	Paediatric upper age limit (years)	Population, rural/inner city	Type of hospital, paediatric or mixed hospital and ED	Supervising specialist	Paediatric ED visits (n)	Primary care during out-of-office hours	Self- referral (%)	Triage system	Admission rate (%)
AT, MUG*	17	Mixed	Tertiary, university hospital mixed, ED paediatric	Paediatrician	10 000–20 000	No	50–75	MTS	12
DE, LMU†	18	Mixed	Tertiary university hospital and ED paediatric	Paediatrician, paediatric emergency physician	10 000–20 000	Yes	50–75	MTS	10
GR, NKUA‡	16	Inner city	Tertiary, university hospital and ED paediatric	Paediatrician	30 000–40 000	No	>75	Local/National	15
LV, RSU§	18	Mixed	Tertiary, university hospital and ED paediatric	Paediatrician	>40 000	No	20–50	MTS	12
NL, RUMC¶	18	Mixed	Tertiary university hospital paediatric, ED mixed	Paediatrician, emergency physician	<10 000	Yes	<20	Local/National	30
NL, EMC**	18	Mixed	Tertiary university hospital paediatric, ED mixed	Paediatrician	<10 000	Yes	20–50	MTS	20
SL, UKCL††	18	Mixed	Tertiary university hospital mixed, ED paediatric	Paediatrician	<10 000	Yes	<5	Local/National	51
SP, SERGAS‡‡	15	Mixed	University hospital mixed, ED paediatric	Paediatrician	30 000–40 000	Yes	>75	MTS	4
UK, LIV§§	16	Mixed	Tertiary, university hospital and ED paediatric	Paediatric emergency physician	>40 000	Yes	50–75	MTS	20
UK, SMH¶¶	16	Inner city	University hospital mixed, ED paediatric	Paediatric emergency physician	20 000–30 000	Yes	>75	MTS	15
UK, UNEW***	16	Mixed	Tertiary, university hospital and ED paediatric	Paediatrician, emergency physician	20 000–30 000	Yes	50–75	MTS	15

*Medical University of Graz, Department of General Paediatrics, Graz, Austria.
†Dr von Hauner Children’s Hospital, university hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich, Germany.
‡National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Second Department of Paediatrics, P & A Kyriakou Children’s Hospital, Athens, Greece.
§Rīgas Stradiņa universitāte, Children’s Clinical University Hospital, Department of Paediatrics, Riga, Latvia.
¶Amalia Children’s Hospital, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
**Erasmus MC-Sophia Children’s Hospital, Department of General Paediatrics, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
††University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Department of Infectious Diseases, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
‡‡Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
§§Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK.
¶¶Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Section of Paediatrics, London, UK.
***Great North Children’s Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
ED, emergency department; MTS, Manchester Triage System.