Primary health care utilisation and delivery in remote Australian clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Published in: BMC Primary Care
• Main Authors: Supriya Mathew, Michelle S. Fitts, Zania Liddle, Lisa Bourke, Narelle Campbell, Lorna Murakami-Gold, Deborah J Russell, John S. Humphreys, Bronwyn Rossingh, Yuejen Zhao, Michael P. Jones, John Boffa, Mark Ramjan, Annie Tangey, Rosalie Schultz, Edward Mulholland, John Wakerman
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2024
• Subjects: Healthcare access; COVID; First Nations people; Aboriginal people; Clinic use; Medicine (General); R5-920; First Nations
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-024-02485-3; https://doaj.org/article/1a31548fec9141bd87d52c4b8465d193

Abstract Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic period (2020 to 2022) challenged and overstretched the capacity of primary health care services to deliver health care globally. The sector faced a highly uncertain and dynamic period that encompassed anticipation of a new, unknown, lethal and highly transmissible infection, the introduction of various travel restrictions, health workforce shortages, new government funding announcements and various policies to restrict the spread of the COVID-19 virus, then vaccination and treatments. This qualitative study aims to document and explore how the pandemic affected primary health care utilisation and delivery in remote and regional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff working in 11 Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs) in outer regional, remote and very remote Australia. Interviews were transcribed, inductively coded and thematically analysed. Results 248 staff working in outer regional, remote and very remote primary health care clinics were interviewed between February 2020 and June 2021. Participants reported a decline in numbers of primary health care presentations in most communities during the initial COVID-19 lock down period. The reasons for the decline were attributed to community members apprehension to go to the clinics, change in work priorities of primary health care staff (e.g. more emphasis on preventing the virus entering the communities and stopping the spread) and limited outreach programs. Staff forecasted a future spike in acute presentations of various chronic diseases leading to increased medical retrieval requirements from remote communities to hospital. Information dissemination during the pre-vaccine roll-out stage was perceived to be well received by community members, while vaccine roll-out stage information was challenged by misinformation circulated through social media. Conclusions The ability of ACCHSs to be able to adapt service delivery in response ...