NewsGP - Research highlights main challenges faced by GPs during pandemic

General practice has underpinned Australia’s response to COVID-19 – but that role has not been without its challenges. Now new research has revealed the extent to which the pandemic has impacted GPs, with nearly 300 GPs participating in an online survey in March just as the COVID vaccine rollout began.

It found that 12 months into the pandemic, more than one-third of respondents were very or extremely concerned about the effects of the health crisis on their patients (40%) and delayed essential care (34%).

Patients ignoring clinic pre-screening measures and presenting with flu-like symptoms was another key issue for 39% of respondents.

Lead author Dr Tessa Copp, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the University of Sydney School of Public Health, told newsGP she was surprised to find very little research into general practices’ experience of the pandemic, given the ‘really significant challenges’ practices have faced.

‘A lot of the issues we identified have only become more pronounced now after the Delta outbreak,’ she said.

‘These findings just really highlight how much time GPs are having to spend constantly reacting to a very fast changing situation, and how much time they’re also spending trying to counteract misinformation that might have spread throughout the community.’