Co-designing child health resources for primary care colleagues and families during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Background The Covid-19 pandemic forced organisational change onto healthcare services. Health care professionals have been challenged by the rapidly evolving situation, significant capacity issues, anxiety from patients, and risks to personal health. Safe assessment of febrile children in primary care became unclear and potentially a risky situation. Objectives To support primary care professionals to safely assess febrile children during the pandemic, and to help parents safely navigate a disrupted health system, an information bundle was co-produced and distributed to GPs and families across an inner-city area. Methods Connecting Care for Children (CC4C) is a collaborative that supports the delivery of integrated child health services. Through established primary and secondary care networks, CC4C was able to listen to primary care colleagues practicing in the pandemic, and to understand their clinical worries and needs. Similarly, CC4C used its network of patient champions to hear what families were grappling with. With this understanding, the CC4C team was able to initiate the development of supportive child health resources. A Primary Care and Community Resource Pack for use during the Covid-19 pandemic was co-produced by general and infectious disease paediatricians, local GPs, and junior doctors. The resource bundle included . Guidance for assessing febrile children in primary care . Advice for minimising the risk of Covid-19 transmission during face-to-face assessment . Answers to frequently asked questions . Information about when Covid-19 tests are indicated A sample group of GPs provided feedback to an initial draft, and their suggestions were incorporated into the guideline. Resources for GPs to distribute to parents and carers were also included in the bundle . a flow-chart to aid decision making about school attendance based on a child's symptoms . when to seek medical attention based on their child's clinical condition. Patients and citizens were involved in the development of the 'Should I Send my Child to School' flowchart, providing suggestions to make the guidance clearer. During the second wave of the pandemic, new resources were added including . information about Paediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome . the new Covid-19 variants Results The resource pack was distributed to GPs across a large inner-city population, and two adjacent regions requested permission to use the resources. Resources from the bundle are available online at www.cc4c.imperial.nhs.uk/our-experience/ common-paediatric-questions. Elements of the bundle were shared widely on social media, reaching audiences across the country- the FAQs for GPs document was seen by over 1,000 Twitter users and shared by 28;the 'Should I Send my Child to School' flowchart was seen by over 1,700 users. GPs provided positive feedback and felt that the bundle offered reassurance, was an 'extremely helpful resource on how they can safely assess their paediatric patients this winter' and a 'must-read for primary care physicians'. Conclusions Co-designing and co-producing a child health resource pack with both primary care colleagues and parents and carers enabled the development of resources that were useful and supportive to all those caring for children and young people during the Covid -19 pandemic.