Consulting patterns of children at a general practice during the coronavirus pandemic

ABSTRACT

Aim We sought to measure the change in the use of the general practitioner (GP) service by paediatric patients of our group practice, following the introduction of pandemic restrictions in March 2020. We aimed to determine the causes for the observed reduced consulting frequency and whether telephone advice is acceptable to parents as an alternative to face-to-face consultation. Methods We interrogated the electronic medical record for a count of surgery and out of hours (OOH) contacts between January 2019 and June 2020. We interviewed 10 parents of children under six years of age as to their reasons for consulting or not at this time. This informed an on-line survey of 108 parents. Results Consulting frequency fell by three quarters from an average of 12 visits/day to 3. OOH visits also declined from an average of 3 to 1/day. Telephone contacts with the GP did not increase. Parents gave a number of reasons for not consulting absence of illness (90%, 62/69), fear of coronavirus infection (28%,19/69), wishing to protect the front-line service (21%,14/68) availability of a parent to monitor a sick child (20%,13/66) Many parents (73%, 74/102) wished to continue to avail of telephone triage following the ending of pandemic restrictions. Conclusion Much of the consulting of children at our surgery relates to infective illness. Telephone triage for children with minor illness is welcomed by parents.