[Telemedicine consultations for post-COVID in a university-based specialist outpatient clinic: focus group results on factors influencing the participation of general practitioners].

The care of patients suffering from post-COVID presents general practitioners with a number of challenges in terms of diagnosis and treatment, as well as in the coordination of further care options at various levels (primary care, specialist care and maximum care, e. g., at university hospitals). Cooperation between general practitioners and specialist providers is of particular importance for complex conditions such as post-COVID. In the ViCoReK project, general practitioners and their patients have the option of receiving telemedical advice from an interdisciplinary team comprising staff from a university hospital. The study's was to identify the factors that influence general practitioners' participation in the project.The study, conducted in February and April 2024, utilized two focus groups, namely general practitioners who had and those who had not utilized consultation opportunities within the ViCoReK project. The focus groups were subjected to qualitative content analysis.The results of the 93- and 102-minute focus groups with 13 general practitioners and one physician assistant showed that only a small number of severely affected patients with post-COVID were currently being treated in the respondents' practices. Caring for these patients was time-consuming and put pressure on general practitioners, as the currently available treatment options were experienced as only partially helpful. The personal dedication of general practitioners encouraged participation in the project: The general practitioners expressed a desire to exchange ideas with experts on the subject of post-COVID and were committed to incorporating digital technologies into their practices. The most significant barriers to their participation were challenges related to the digitalization of their practices, inadequate reimbursement options, and lack of time.Despite a willingness to utilise telemedical post-COVID services for networking with specialist outpatient clinics, general practitioners encounter significant barriers to their implementation at the structural level, including technical, financial and temporal constraints. To address these challenges, the development of digital services to support post-COVID care must be guided by principles of accessibility and pragmatism, ensuring their feasibility in general practices, even in the context of limited time.