In a recent article, I discuss the primary care response to Covid-19 in England. The first case of COVID-19 in England was identified at the end of January 2020. Cases increased during February, and by early March, it became apparent that England faced a large COVID-19 epidemic. This led to the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England (the bodies that respectively fund and manage the NHS in England) to recommend radical changes to the provision of NHS primary care services.
For most general practices, these changes began to be implemented in the week beginning 16 March 2020. As a first step, general practices switched from the traditional model of face-to-face service provision to one where all patients were initially assessed through a telephone or a video call. Patients were encouraged to register for online booking of these appointments if they had not already done this.
All patients requesting advice spoke first to a health professional, usually general practitioners. The aim was to deal with as many queries as possible by telephone or a video call. Patients who required a face-to-face appointment were booked to be seen in later that day. This ensured that patients were largely managed on the same day they sought medical advice. These changes have resulted in around three-quarters of patients being managed remotely compared to the same time last year when only one-quarter were, with the total volume of primary care activity falling by about 25%.
We have seen rapid changes in primary care in England, but challenges remain, particularly if the number of people with COVID-19 infection increases rapidly and starts to overwhelm the health system, or if second and subsequent waves of infection occur. Other challenges include providing medical care for people who are self-isolating at home because of their age or because of underlying medical problems that increase their risk of complications and death if they contract a COVID-19 infection. There are also problems that will arise from the cutting back of many specialist hospital services, which will have negative effects on health outcomes if restrictions in health services remain in place for a prolonged period.
Overall, primary care in England has responded well to the COVID-19 pandemic, making radical changes to how primary care services are delivered in a very short period of time. Key to allowing this to happen is the commitment by the UK government to support general practices financially to prevent the loss of income that has occurred to primary care practices in countries such as the USA. However, the future will remain challenging for primary care teams in England until such time as a vaccine or effective drug treatment can be found for COVID-19.
Read the full article in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Comments