Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Led to Changes in the Tasks of the Primary Care Workforce? An International Survey among General Practices in 38 Countries (PRICOV-19)

Peter Groenewegen (), Esther Van Poel, Peter Spreeuwenberg, Ronald Batenburg, Christian Mallen, Liubove Murauskiene, Antoni Peris, Benoit Pétré, Emmily Schaubroeck, Stefanie Stark, Emil L. Sigurdsson, Athina Tatsioni, Kyriaki Vafeidou and Sara Willems
Additional contact information
Peter Groenewegen: Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL), 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands
Esther Van Poel: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Peter Spreeuwenberg: Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL), 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands
Ronald Batenburg: Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL), 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands
Christian Mallen: School of Medicine, Keele University, Keele ST5 5BG, UK
Liubove Murauskiene: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Vilnius, 03101 Vilnius, Lithuania
Antoni Peris: Castelldefels Agents de Salut (Casap), 08860 Castelldefels, Spain
Benoit Pétré: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium
Emmily Schaubroeck: Institute of General Practice, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), 91054 Erlan-gen-Nürnberg, Germany
Stefanie Stark: Institute of General Practice, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), 91054 Erlan-gen-Nürnberg, Germany
Emil L. Sigurdsson: Department of family medicine, University of Iceland, 102 Reykjavík, Iceland
Athina Tatsioni: Research Unit for General Medicine and Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
Kyriaki Vafeidou: Research Unit for General Medicine and Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
Sara Willems: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 22, 1-20

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a large and varying impact on primary care. This paper studies changes in the tasks of general practitioners (GPs) and associated staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from the PRICOV-19 study of 5093 GPs in 38 countries were used. We constructed a scale for task changes and performed multilevel analyses. The scale was reliable at both GP and country level. Clustering of task changes at country level was considerable (25%). During the pandemic, staff members were more involved in giving information and recommendations to patients contacting the practice by phone, and they were more involved in triage. GPs took on additional responsibilities and were more involved in reaching out to patients. Problems due to staff absence, when dealt with internally, were related to more task changes. Task changes were larger in practices employing a wider range of professional groups. Whilst GPs were happy with the task changes in practices with more changes, they also felt the need for further training. A higher-than-average proportion of elderly people and people with a chronic condition in the practice were related to task changes. The number of infections in a country during the first wave of the pandemic was related to task changes. Other characteristics at country level were not associated with task changes. Future research on the sustainability of task changes after the pandemic is needed.

Keywords: primary health care; general practice; general practitioners; task changes; quality of care; primary care workforce; COVID-19; international comparison; PRICOV-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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