Primary care physicians in Hong Kong and Canada--how did their practices differ during the SARS epidemic?

Hong Kong and Canada have very different primary health care systems. We thus hypothesized family physicians between the two places would be different in how they protected themselves, their staff and families during the epidemic.

The purpose of this study was to explore and contrast the impact of SARS on family physicians in Hong Kong and Toronto.

A postal questionnaire was designed and sent to 183 tutors affiliated with the Chinese University of Hong Kong with 137 replies (74.8%). In Toronto, 150 questionnaires were sent to academic family physicians affiliated with the University of Toronto with 51 replies (34%).

All agreed SARS had changed their clinical behaviour. For public health measures in the control of SARS, Hong Kong physicians were less likely to quarantined themselves (77.1% versus 19.4%, P < 0.01) or gave quarantine leave to staff (95% versus 59.7%, P < 0.01) after exposure to probable or suspected SARS. However, they were more likely to wear a mask (52.7% versus 97.7%, P = 0) during consultation, having support staff to wear masks (68.6% versus 97.8%, P = 0) and test patient's temperature (47.1% versus 68.1%, P < 0.01).

There were noticeable differences in how family physicians deal with SARS between the two cities. As SARS emerged as a global disease, better understanding of practice differences among physicians from different countries would facilitate globalization of public health.