Investigating changing demands on primary care during COVID-19: Summary report 3
21 July 2020
The Rapid COVID-19 intelligence to improve primary care response (RAPCI) project is examining the changing demands on GP practices across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will investigate common challenges and innovative solutions that practices have devised to cope.
This third summary report presents qualitative findings from 20 interviews held with GPs and managers from 20 GP practices between 15 June and 2 July 2020.
Overview of findings
We found that practices are still coping well. However, despite giving high coping scores (8-9 out of 10), many of them commented on an increase in fatigue.
Challenges faced in the last period included: rising demand; restarting services; prescribing remotely; managing long-term conditions remotely; delays in secondary referrals; managing patient expectations; mental load on staff; and the shielding list.
New challenges identified in this period are: restarting services; continuation of pre-COVID-19 plans; online triage consultations; planning for winter; support from secondary care; drug manufacture and supply problems; test and trace and infection control.
Citing this report
This report should be cited as:
Murphy, M. Turner, A. Denholm, R. Scott, L. Scott, A. Macleod, J. Salisbury, C. Horwood, J. RAPCI Project Summary Report 3, 10 July 2020. Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC), University of Bristol. Available from http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/primaryhealthcare/documents/RAPCI%20Project%20Summary%20Report%203%20-%2010%20July%202020.pdf
Download the full report
