How primary healthcare in Iceland swiftly changed its strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Objective To describe how the primary healthcare (PHC) in Iceland changed its strategy to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Design Descriptive observational study. Setting Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Population The Reykjavik area has a total of 233 000 inhabitants. Main outcome measures The numbe...
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crjcrbmj:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043151 2024-10-13T14:08:19+00:00 How primary healthcare in Iceland swiftly changed its strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic Sigurdsson, Emil Larus Blondal, Anna Bryndis Jonsson, Jon Steinar Tomasdottir, Margret Olafia Hrafnkelsson, Hannes Linnet, Kristjan Sigurdsson, Johann Agust The Research Fund of the Icelandic College of Family Physicians 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043151 https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043151 en eng BMJ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ BMJ Open volume 10, issue 12, page e043151 ISSN 2044-6055 2044-6055 journal-article 2020 crjcrbmj https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043151 2024-09-27T04:11:45Z Objective To describe how the primary healthcare (PHC) in Iceland changed its strategy to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Design Descriptive observational study. Setting Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Population The Reykjavik area has a total of 233 000 inhabitants. Main outcome measures The number and the mode of consultations carried out. Drug prescriptions and changes in the 10 most common diagnoses made in PHC. Laboratory tests including COVID-19 tests. Average numbers in March and April 2020 compared with the same months in 2018 and 2019. Results Pragmatic strategies and new tasks were rapidly applied to the clinical work to meet the foreseen healthcare needs caused by the pandemic. The number of daytime consultations increased by 35% or from 780 to 1051/1000 inhabitants (p<0.001) during the study period. Telephone and web-based consultations increased by 127% (p<0.001). The same tendency was observed in out-of-hours services. The number of consultations in maternity and well-child care decreased only by 4% (p=0.003). Changes were seen in the 10 most common diagnoses. Most noteworthy, apart from a high number of COVID-19 suspected disease, was that immunisation, depression, hypothyroidism and lumbago were not among the top 10 diagnoses during the epidemic period. The number of drug prescriptions increased by 10.3% (from 494 to 545 per 1000 inhabitants, p<0.001). The number of prescriptions from telephone and web-based consultations rose by 55.6%. No changes were observed in antibiotics prescriptions. Conclusions As the first point of contact in the COVID-19 pandemic, the PHC in Iceland managed to change its strategy swiftly while preserving traditional maternity and well-child care, indicating a very solid PHC with substantial flexibility in its organisation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland The BMJ Handle The ENVELOPE(161.983,161.983,-78.000,-78.000) BMJ Open 10 12 e043151 |
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The BMJ |
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crjcrbmj |
language |
English |
description |
Objective To describe how the primary healthcare (PHC) in Iceland changed its strategy to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Design Descriptive observational study. Setting Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Population The Reykjavik area has a total of 233 000 inhabitants. Main outcome measures The number and the mode of consultations carried out. Drug prescriptions and changes in the 10 most common diagnoses made in PHC. Laboratory tests including COVID-19 tests. Average numbers in March and April 2020 compared with the same months in 2018 and 2019. Results Pragmatic strategies and new tasks were rapidly applied to the clinical work to meet the foreseen healthcare needs caused by the pandemic. The number of daytime consultations increased by 35% or from 780 to 1051/1000 inhabitants (p<0.001) during the study period. Telephone and web-based consultations increased by 127% (p<0.001). The same tendency was observed in out-of-hours services. The number of consultations in maternity and well-child care decreased only by 4% (p=0.003). Changes were seen in the 10 most common diagnoses. Most noteworthy, apart from a high number of COVID-19 suspected disease, was that immunisation, depression, hypothyroidism and lumbago were not among the top 10 diagnoses during the epidemic period. The number of drug prescriptions increased by 10.3% (from 494 to 545 per 1000 inhabitants, p<0.001). The number of prescriptions from telephone and web-based consultations rose by 55.6%. No changes were observed in antibiotics prescriptions. Conclusions As the first point of contact in the COVID-19 pandemic, the PHC in Iceland managed to change its strategy swiftly while preserving traditional maternity and well-child care, indicating a very solid PHC with substantial flexibility in its organisation. |
author2 |
The Research Fund of the Icelandic College of Family Physicians |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sigurdsson, Emil Larus Blondal, Anna Bryndis Jonsson, Jon Steinar Tomasdottir, Margret Olafia Hrafnkelsson, Hannes Linnet, Kristjan Sigurdsson, Johann Agust |
spellingShingle |
Sigurdsson, Emil Larus Blondal, Anna Bryndis Jonsson, Jon Steinar Tomasdottir, Margret Olafia Hrafnkelsson, Hannes Linnet, Kristjan Sigurdsson, Johann Agust How primary healthcare in Iceland swiftly changed its strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic |
author_facet |
Sigurdsson, Emil Larus Blondal, Anna Bryndis Jonsson, Jon Steinar Tomasdottir, Margret Olafia Hrafnkelsson, Hannes Linnet, Kristjan Sigurdsson, Johann Agust |
author_sort |
Sigurdsson, Emil Larus |
title |
How primary healthcare in Iceland swiftly changed its strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_short |
How primary healthcare in Iceland swiftly changed its strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full |
How primary healthcare in Iceland swiftly changed its strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_fullStr |
How primary healthcare in Iceland swiftly changed its strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed |
How primary healthcare in Iceland swiftly changed its strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_sort |
how primary healthcare in iceland swiftly changed its strategy in response to the covid-19 pandemic |
publisher |
BMJ |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043151 https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043151 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(161.983,161.983,-78.000,-78.000) |
geographic |
Handle The |
geographic_facet |
Handle The |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
BMJ Open volume 10, issue 12, page e043151 ISSN 2044-6055 2044-6055 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043151 |
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BMJ Open |
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10 |
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12 |
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e043151 |
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1812814998918922240 |