COVID-19 challenges faced by general practitioners in Australia: a survey study conducted in March 2021

Tessa Copp,Carissa Bonner,Jennifer M J Isautier,Lyndal Trevena,Julie Ayre,Marguerite Tracy,Rachael H Dodd,Kristen Pickles,Ramesh Manocha,Erin Cvejic,Jenny Doust,Brooke Nickel,Kirsten J Mccaffery

doi:10.1071/py21165

Abstract

Limited studies at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic found GPs have been negatively affected by increased workload, reduced income and major concerns about staff and patient safety. This study aimed to investigate the challenges of COVID-19 in general practice 1 year since it was declared a pandemic. A national cross-sectional online survey was conducted in March 2021 of a convenience sample of 295 Australian GPs attending an online educational webcast. Twenty-five multipart and free-text questions collected information regarding GPs' main COVID-19-related issues and concerns, including COVID-19 vaccines, useful sources of information, information needs and their perceived role as GPs in COVID-19 management. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all quantitative variables. Content analysis was used to analyse text data from open-ended questions. Of the 596 eligible attendees of the online educational webcast, 295 completed the survey (49.5% response rate). One year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, GPs still have concerns regarding patients ignoring prescreening and presenting with flu-like symptoms, the safety of their colleagues and family and catching COVID-19 themselves, as well as concerns about the effect of the pandemic on their patients and patients delaying essential care for non-COVID-19 conditions. More education and resources about vaccines was identified as the top information need, which will assist with what GPs' perceived to be their key roles in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, namely educating the public, correcting misunderstandings and providing the COVID-19 vaccine. These findings highlight gaps in communication and information, particularly regarding COVID-19 vaccines. GPs need high-quality information and resources to support them in undertaking complex risk communication with their patients.

Highlights

GPs are the gatekeepers to health care and are on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping people when they are unwell and providing information about virus spread, testing and vaccination (Huston et al 2020)
Media coverage throughout 2020 has suggested that GPs have been dissatisfied with communication from the federal government and feel they have been poorly utilised in the response to COVID-19, despite being ideally placed to help their communities contain local outbreaks (Crimmins 2020; Le Grand 2020)
The most commonly selected issue was patients asking for more information about the COVID-19 vaccines (51%), followed by patients asking whether symptoms indicate a need for COVID-19 testing (50%) or asking for advice about testing (45%)

Summary

Introduction

GPs are the gatekeepers to health care and are on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping people when they are unwell and providing information about virus spread, testing and vaccination (Huston et al 2020). Telehealth increased during the pandemic (from 0% to 34% of all consultations; Snoswell et al 2020), a nationally representative survey of the Australian public found one in six people had cancelled or postponed a doctor’s appointment because of the COVID-19 pandemic (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021). This is Journal compilation Ó CSIRO 2021 Open Access CC BY www.publish.csiro.au/journals/py

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