Cargando…

Experience of Healthcare Access in Australia during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Changes in health-seeking behaviours and challenges in accessing care have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study examines Australian experiences related to healthcare access during the early months of the pandemic. The study aimed to identify key areas of concern as well...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Podubinski, Tegan, Townsin, Louise, Thompson, Sandra C., Tynan, Anna, Argus, Geoff
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535411/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682432
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010687
_version_ 1784587777443102720
author Podubinski, Tegan
Townsin, Louise
Thompson, Sandra C.
Tynan, Anna
Argus, Geoff
author_facet Podubinski, Tegan
Townsin, Louise
Thompson, Sandra C.
Tynan, Anna
Argus, Geoff
author_sort Podubinski, Tegan
collection PubMed
description Changes in health-seeking behaviours and challenges in accessing care have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study examines Australian experiences related to healthcare access during the early months of the pandemic. The study aimed to identify key areas of concern as well as opportunities for services to prevent, manage and treat health concerns when normal access was disrupted. Fifty-nine semi-structured interviews were analysed. Participants were interviewed between August and December in 2020 over telephone or Zoom and were located across Australia. Rapid identification of themes with an audio recordings technique was used to generate themes from the data. Participants described a variety of influences on their health-seeking behaviours, resulting in decisions to delay care or being unable to reach care. Many individuals accessed health services via telehealth and offered a range of perceptions and views on its effectiveness and appropriateness. The findings illustrate that maintenance of health and access to healthcare and psychosocial support were compromised for some individuals, leading to negative impacts on both mental and physical health. This highlights the need to provide mechanisms to facilitate a person’s ability to access care in a timely manner during a pandemic.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8535411
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-85354112021-10-23 Experience of Healthcare Access in Australia during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic Podubinski, Tegan Townsin, Louise Thompson, Sandra C. Tynan, Anna Argus, Geoff Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Changes in health-seeking behaviours and challenges in accessing care have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study examines Australian experiences related to healthcare access during the early months of the pandemic. The study aimed to identify key areas of concern as well as opportunities for services to prevent, manage and treat health concerns when normal access was disrupted. Fifty-nine semi-structured interviews were analysed. Participants were interviewed between August and December in 2020 over telephone or Zoom and were located across Australia. Rapid identification of themes with an audio recordings technique was used to generate themes from the data. Participants described a variety of influences on their health-seeking behaviours, resulting in decisions to delay care or being unable to reach care. Many individuals accessed health services via telehealth and offered a range of perceptions and views on its effectiveness and appropriateness. The findings illustrate that maintenance of health and access to healthcare and psychosocial support were compromised for some individuals, leading to negative impacts on both mental and physical health. This highlights the need to provide mechanisms to facilitate a person’s ability to access care in a timely manner during a pandemic. MDPI 2021-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8535411/ /pubmed/34682432 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010687 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Podubinski, Tegan
Townsin, Louise
Thompson, Sandra C.
Tynan, Anna
Argus, Geoff
Experience of Healthcare Access in Australia during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Experience of Healthcare Access in Australia during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Experience of Healthcare Access in Australia during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Experience of Healthcare Access in Australia during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Experience of Healthcare Access in Australia during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Experience of Healthcare Access in Australia during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort experience of healthcare access in australia during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535411/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682432
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010687
work_keys_str_mv AT podubinskitegan experienceofhealthcareaccessinaustraliaduringthefirstyearofthecovid19pandemic
AT townsinlouise experienceofhealthcareaccessinaustraliaduringthefirstyearofthecovid19pandemic
AT thompsonsandrac experienceofhealthcareaccessinaustraliaduringthefirstyearofthecovid19pandemic
AT tynananna experienceofhealthcareaccessinaustraliaduringthefirstyearofthecovid19pandemic
AT argusgeoff experienceofhealthcareaccessinaustraliaduringthefirstyearofthecovid19pandemic