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[General Practitioners' Experiences with COVID-19: a Survey After the First Wave of the Pandemic in March/April 2020]
Hanna Schrader1, Gábor Borgulya1, Sandra Parisi1
1Institut für Allgemeinmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Insights
General practitioners (GPs) initially felt overburdened during the COVID-19 pandemic but grew more capable over time. Simplifying care organization is key for future crises.
Area of Science:
- Primary care research
- Epidemiology
- Public health
Context:
- The COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges to primary care systems globally.
- General practitioners (GPs) faced significant operational and psychological burdens during the initial wave.
Purpose:
- To analyze the burden experienced by GPs in Germany during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To identify factors predicting a sense of being overburdened among GPs.
- To assess changes in perceived capability to care for COVID-19 patients over time.
Summary:
- A cross-sectional study surveyed 6300 GPs in Germany regarding their experiences during the pandemic.
- Initially, 40% of GPs reported high or very high levels of being overburdened, decreasing to 10% later.
- Increased COVID-19 patient numbers correlated with higher perceived capability to provide care.
- Predictors of being overburdened included psychological stress, organizational demands, and inadequate protective equipment.
Impact:
- GPs' sense of being overburdened decreased over the pandemic, with increasing perceived capability.
- Simplifying care organization is crucial to support GPs in future health crises.
- Findings inform strategies for enhancing primary care resilience during pandemics.
Background And Objectives:
The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (Mar-Apr 2020) posed significant challenges for primary care. The goal of this study was to analyse the burden of the crisis situation as experienced by the general practitioners (GPs) at its beginning and over the course of the pandemic and to identify factors predictive of the sense of being overburdened.
Methods:
In this cross-sectional study, a total of 6300 randomly selected GPs in four federal states of Germany were contacted per post in order to survey changes in health care they provided and their psychological burden in the context of the pandemic between August and October 2020.
Results:
The response rate was 23%; 46% of the participants were female. At the beginning of the pandemic, 40% of the participants experienced a high or a very high level of being overburdened; later on, it was only 10%. With increasing numbers of COVID patients, the sense of being overburdened increased, as also their perceived capability to care for COVID patients. Predictors of a sense of being overburdened were, among others, a high level of psychological stress, excessive organising efforts, poor capability to care for COVID patients, and scarce supply of protective equipment.
Conclusion:
Despite a sense of being overburdened initially, GPs felt increasingly capable of caring for COVID patients. To help GPs in future crisis situations like this pandemic, organization of care should be simplified to the extent possible so that they can focus on patient care.
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