General practice
by Dr Michael J. Leach
as COVID strikes—workloads rise
as revenues fall
The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected populations and industries in multifarious ways. For more than a year now, global viral spread and associated lockdowns have driven major health and economic crises. While industries such as travel and entertainment have experienced dramatic reductions in both workload and revenue, the situation in the health care industry is more complex.
In a health services research study, Kippen et al. (2020) explored the early impacts of COVID-19 on Australian general practice through a national online survey. This survey was distributed to 4,891 Australian general practice supervisors on 14 April 2020—less than one month after the World Health Organization upgraded the COVID-19 epidemic to a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The cut-off date for survey completion was 13 May 2020. Overall, 572 of the 4,891 general practice supervisors responded, giving a relatively good physician response rate of 12%.
Of the 572 respondents, 61% reported an increased overall workload during the pandemic while 77% reported reduced practice revenue. Increased workloads related to the implementation of new hygiene practices and clinical regimens, heightened community anxiety, and higher volumes of phone calls. Reduced practice revenues, meanwhile, stemmed from additional administrative work, additional clinical work that could not be reimbursed through the government in the usual way, and the need to purchase new resources such as disinfectant and personal protective equipment. Such changes have adversely affected the viability of Australian general practice—a cornerstone of the health care sector, especially during a pandemic.
The original research article described here is available open access online:
Kippen R, O’Sullivan B, Hickson H, Leach M, Wallace G. (2020). A national survey of COVID-19 challenges, responses and effects in Australian general practice. Australian Journal of General Practice. 49(11): 745-751. https://www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/2020/november/national-survey-of-covid-19-challenges
Michael J. Leach (@m_jleach) is an Australian epidemiologist, biostatistician, and poet based at the Monash University School of Rural Health. His debut poetry collection is Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020).
Check out more sciku by Michael, including ‘The Core Correlate of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance‘, ‘Drug-Induced Hip Fractures‘, ‘The Psychopharmacological Revolution‘, ‘Quality of Life at Seven Years Post-Stroke‘, ‘The Burden of Bushfire Smoke‘, and ‘Australian Science Poetry‘ with science communicator Rachel Rayner. Michael also has another Covid-19-related sciku published in Pulse which is well worth checking out: ‘flu shot announcement‘.