Department of General Practice, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
BMC Prim Care. 2023 Oct 28;24(Suppl 1):227. doi: 10.1186/s12875-023-02146-x.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to huge and rapid changes in general practice in Norway as in the rest of Europe. This paper aims to explore to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic changed the work tasks and organization of Norwegian general practice.
We analysed data from the Norwegian part of the international, cross-sectional PRICOV-19 study, collecting data from general practice via an online self-reported questionnaire. We included 130 Norwegian general practices, representing an estimated 520 Norwegian general practitioners (GPs). All Norwegian GPs were invited to participate. In the analyses, we focused on items related to the use of alternatives to face-to-face consultations, changes in the workload, tasks and delegated responsibilities of both the GPs and other personnel in the GP offices, adaptations in routines related to hygiene measures, triage of patients, and how the official rules and recommendations affected the practices.
There was a large and significant increase in the use of all forms of alternative consultation forms (digital text-based, video- and telephone consultations). The use of several different infection prevention measures were significantly increased, and the provision of hand sanitizer to patients increased from 29.6% pre-pandemic to 95.1% since the pandemic. More than half of the GPs (59.5%) reported that their responsibilities in the practice had increased, and 41% were happy with the task shift. 27% felt that they received adequate support from the government; however, 20% reported that guidelines from the government posed a threat to the well-being of the practice staff. We found no associations with the rurality of the practice location or size of the municipalities.
Norwegian GPs adapted well to the need for increased use of alternatives to face-to-face consultations, and reported a high acceptance of their increased responsibilities. However, only one in four received adequate support from the government, which is an important learning point for similar situations in the future.
与欧洲其他国家一样，新冠疫情给挪威的全科医学带来了巨大而迅速的变化。本文旨在探讨新冠疫情在多大程度上改变了挪威全科医学的工作任务和组织。
我们分析了国际跨部门 PRICOV-19 研究中挪威部分的数据，通过在线自我报告问卷收集全科医学数据。我们纳入了 130 家挪威全科诊所，估计有 520 名挪威全科医生（GP）参与。所有挪威 GP 都被邀请参加。在分析中，我们重点关注与替代面对面咨询的使用、工作量变化、GP 办公室内 GP 和其他人员的任务和委托责任变化、与卫生措施相关的常规适应、患者分诊以及官方规则和建议如何影响实践等方面的项目。
所有形式的替代咨询形式（数字文本、视频和电话咨询）的使用都有了大幅显著增加。几种不同的感染预防措施的使用明显增加，向患者提供手部消毒剂的比例从疫情前的 29.6%增加到 95.1%。超过一半的 GP（59.5%）报告说他们在实践中的责任增加了，41%对任务转移感到满意。27%的人认为他们从政府获得了足够的支持；然而，20%的人报告说政府的指导方针对实践员工的福祉构成了威胁。我们没有发现与实践地点的农村性或城市规模的关联。
挪威的 GP 很好地适应了增加替代面对面咨询的需求，并报告说对增加的责任有很高的接受度。然而，只有四分之一的人从政府获得了足够的支持，这是未来类似情况下的一个重要学习点。
