General Practitioner, Senior Research Fellow, Department of General Practice, University of Otago, Christchurch.
Medical Student, University of Otago, Christchurch; Susan Bidwell, Senior Research Fellow, Department of General Practice, University of Otago, Christchurch.
N Z Med J. 2021 Nov 26;134(1546):17-27.
The primary care response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has required significant changes to the delivery of healthcare by general practices. This study explores the experiences of New Zealand general practice teams in their perception of delayed patient care during the early stages of the pandemic.
We qualitatively analysed a subtheme of delayed patient care of the General Practice Pandemic Experience New Zealand study, where general practice team members nationwide were invited to participate in five surveys between May and August 2020.
164 participants initially enrolled in the study, with 78 (48%) completing all surveys. Four delayed-care themes were identified: patient contributors, health system contributors, impacts and opportunities for minimisation. Respondents noted that patients avoided healthcare, downplayed symptoms and feared going out. Non-essential care was put on hold, allied services were reduced and access to secondary care was variable. Certain diseases and screening were commonly impacted. As lockdown lifted a backlog of work resulted. Flexible review periods, outreach care, self-screening, cross-sector collaboration and improved public awareness were strategies for timely healthcare.
Reducing barriers to patients seeking care and improving integration and relationships across the health system would minimise future pandemic disruption and delayed patient healthcare.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行对初级保健的应对要求对一般实践的医疗保健提供方式进行重大改变。本研究探讨了新西兰普通实践团队在大流行早期对延迟患者护理的看法。
我们对新西兰普通实践大流行经验研究的延迟患者护理的子主题进行了定性分析，邀请全国范围内的普通实践团队成员在 2020 年 5 月至 8 月之间参加五次调查。
164 名参与者最初参加了该研究，其中 78 名（48%）完成了所有调查。确定了四个延迟护理主题：患者贡献者、卫生系统贡献者、影响和最小化机会。受访者指出，患者避免就医，轻描淡写症状并害怕外出。非必要护理被搁置，辅助服务减少，获得二级护理的机会各不相同。某些疾病和筛查通常受到影响。随着封锁的解除，积压的工作随之而来。灵活的审查期、上门护理、自我筛查、跨部门合作和提高公众意识是及时进行医疗保健的策略。
减少患者寻求护理的障碍，并改善整个卫生系统的整合和关系，将最大限度地减少未来大流行的干扰和延迟患者护理。
