Abstract Body

Background and purpose: With the onset of COVID-19, general practitioners (GPs) and patients worldwide swiftly transitioned from face-to-face contacts to digital remote care. There is a need to review how this global shift has impacted patient care, healthcare providers, and health systems. This study aims to explore GPs’ perspectives on the main benefits and challenges of using digital remote care.

Methods: An online questionnaire was administered to GPs across twenty countries between Jun-Sep 2020. GPs’ perceptions on main barriers and challenges were explored using free-text questions. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Results: A total of 1,605 respondents participated in our survey. The benefits identified included reducing COVID-19 transmission risks, guaranteeing access and continuity of care, improved efficiency, faster access to care, improved convenience and communication with patients, greater work flexibility for providers, and hastening the digital transformation and the accompanying legal frameworks. Main challenges included patient’s preference for face-to-face consultations, digital exclusion, lack of physical examinations, clinical uncertainty, delays in diagnosis and treatment, overuse and misuse of digital remote care, and unsuitability for certains types of consultations. Other challenges include the lack of formal guidance, higher workloads, remunerations issues, organisational culture, technical difficulties, implementation and financial issues, and regulatory weaknesses.

Conclusions: GPs’ experience during the pandemic is especially valuable to understand how digital remote care can be safely delivered in the future. There is an ethical imperative to learn from this massive real-life experiment, and use this once in a generation opportunity to take the best technology has to offer and change primary care for the better.