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Access to General Practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal—A survey study of patient experiences in an urban setting

BACKGROUND: In 2020, Portugal had high levels of unmet health care needs. Primary Care was reported as the main source of unmet needs. OBJECTIVES: To describe face-to-face and remote access to GPs in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic. To discover patient experiences and attitudes to access to ca...

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Autores principales: Granja, Mónica, Alves, Luís, Correia, Sofia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10204959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37220164
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285899
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author Granja, Mónica
Alves, Luís
Correia, Sofia
author_facet Granja, Mónica
Alves, Luís
Correia, Sofia
author_sort Granja, Mónica
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In 2020, Portugal had high levels of unmet health care needs. Primary Care was reported as the main source of unmet needs. OBJECTIVES: To describe face-to-face and remote access to GPs in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic. To discover patient experiences and attitudes to access to care. To identify determinants of access to care. METHODS: A survey of a random sample of 4,286 adults registered in a group of Family Practices was conducted in 2021. Paper questionnaires were sent by post to patients who had no e-mail address registered with the practice. Patients with an e-mail address were sent a link to an online questionnaire. Outcomes were reported waiting times for face-to-face and remote contacts with GPs, dichotomized to ascertain compliance with standards. Associations between participant characteristics and outcome variables were tested using logistic regression. RESULTS: Waiting times for face-to-face consultations with GPs during the pandemic often exceeded the maximum waiting times (MWT) set by the National Health Service. Remote contacts were mostly conducted within acceptable standards. Waiting times for speaking with the GP over the phone were rated as ‘poor’ by 40% and 27% reported requests for these calls as unmet. The odds of getting care over MWT increased for participants who reported poorer digital skills. Participants were less likely to get non-urgent consultations over MWT if they found it easy to use the online patient portal to book appointments (odds ratio 0.24; 99% confidence intervals 0.09–0.61), request prescriptions (0.18; 0.04–0.74) or insert personal data (0.18; 0.04–0.95). CONCLUSION: Patient reported access to GPs during the pandemic was uneven in Portugal. Obtaining non-urgent consultations and remote contacts over MWT affected mainly those patients with poor digital skills. Telephone access to GPs received the worse ratings. Access through traditional pathways must remain available, to prevent the widening of inequities.
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spelling pubmed-102049592023-05-24 Access to General Practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal—A survey study of patient experiences in an urban setting Granja, Mónica Alves, Luís Correia, Sofia PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: In 2020, Portugal had high levels of unmet health care needs. Primary Care was reported as the main source of unmet needs. OBJECTIVES: To describe face-to-face and remote access to GPs in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic. To discover patient experiences and attitudes to access to care. To identify determinants of access to care. METHODS: A survey of a random sample of 4,286 adults registered in a group of Family Practices was conducted in 2021. Paper questionnaires were sent by post to patients who had no e-mail address registered with the practice. Patients with an e-mail address were sent a link to an online questionnaire. Outcomes were reported waiting times for face-to-face and remote contacts with GPs, dichotomized to ascertain compliance with standards. Associations between participant characteristics and outcome variables were tested using logistic regression. RESULTS: Waiting times for face-to-face consultations with GPs during the pandemic often exceeded the maximum waiting times (MWT) set by the National Health Service. Remote contacts were mostly conducted within acceptable standards. Waiting times for speaking with the GP over the phone were rated as ‘poor’ by 40% and 27% reported requests for these calls as unmet. The odds of getting care over MWT increased for participants who reported poorer digital skills. Participants were less likely to get non-urgent consultations over MWT if they found it easy to use the online patient portal to book appointments (odds ratio 0.24; 99% confidence intervals 0.09–0.61), request prescriptions (0.18; 0.04–0.74) or insert personal data (0.18; 0.04–0.95). CONCLUSION: Patient reported access to GPs during the pandemic was uneven in Portugal. Obtaining non-urgent consultations and remote contacts over MWT affected mainly those patients with poor digital skills. Telephone access to GPs received the worse ratings. Access through traditional pathways must remain available, to prevent the widening of inequities. Public Library of Science 2023-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC10204959/ /pubmed/37220164 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285899 Text en © 2023 Granja et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Granja, Mónica
Alves, Luís
Correia, Sofia
Access to General Practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal—A survey study of patient experiences in an urban setting
title Access to General Practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal—A survey study of patient experiences in an urban setting
title_full Access to General Practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal—A survey study of patient experiences in an urban setting
title_fullStr Access to General Practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal—A survey study of patient experiences in an urban setting
title_full_unstemmed Access to General Practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal—A survey study of patient experiences in an urban setting
title_short Access to General Practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal—A survey study of patient experiences in an urban setting
title_sort access to general practitioners during the covid-19 pandemic in portugal—a survey study of patient experiences in an urban setting
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10204959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37220164
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285899
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