Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Botswana, Gaborone.
Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med. 2022 Apr 19;14(1):e1-e6. doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v14i1.3166.
The World Health Organization issued interim guidelines on essential health system preparedness and response measures for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The control of the pandemic requires healthcare system preparedness and response.
This study aimed to evaluate frontline COVID-19 primary health care professionals' (PHC-Ps) views on health system preparedness and response to the pandemic in the Mahalapye Health District (MHD).
In March 2020, the Botswana Ministry of Health directed health districts to educate their health professionals about COVID-19. One hundred and seventy frontline PHC-Ps were trained in MHD; they evaluated the health system's preparedness and response.
This was a cross-sectional study that involved a self-administered questionnaire using the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Health System response guidelines.
The majority (72.5%) of participants felt unprepared to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic at their level. Most of the participants (70.7%) acknowledged that the health system response plan has been followed. About half of the participants attributed a low score regarding the health system's preparedness (44.4%), its response (50.0%), and its overall performance (55.6%) to the COVID-19 pandemic. There was an association between participants' age and work experience and their overall perceptions of preparedness and response (p = 0.009 and p = 0.005, respectively).
More than half of the participants gave a low score to the MHD regarding the health system's preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies are required to determine the causes of such attitudes and to be better prepared to respond effectively.
世界卫生组织发布了针对 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行的基本卫生系统准备和应对措施的临时指南。控制大流行需要医疗保健系统的准备和应对。
本研究旨在评估 Mahalapye 卫生区（MHD）一线 COVID-19 初级卫生保健专业人员（PHC-P）对大流行卫生系统准备和应对的看法。
2020 年 3 月，博茨瓦纳卫生部指示各卫生区向其卫生专业人员开展关于 COVID-19 的教育。在 MHD 对 170 名一线 PHC-P 进行了培训；他们评估了卫生系统的准备情况和应对能力。
这是一项横断面研究，使用综合疾病监测和卫生系统应对指南进行了自我管理的问卷调查。
大多数（72.5%）参与者认为他们在自己的层面上没有准备好应对 COVID-19 大流行。大多数参与者（70.7%）承认已经遵循了卫生系统应对计划。大约一半的参与者认为卫生系统的准备情况（44.4%）、应对情况（50.0%）和整体表现（55.6%）得分较低归因于 COVID-19 大流行。参与者的年龄和工作经验与其对准备情况和应对情况的整体看法之间存在关联（p=0.009 和 p=0.005）。
超过一半的参与者对 MHD 在卫生系统应对 COVID-19 大流行方面的准备情况评价较低。需要进一步研究以确定造成这种态度的原因，并更好地为有效应对做好准备。
