RAPCI project [COVID-19]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Rapid COVID-19 Intelligence to improve primary care response
IRAS ID
282541
Contact name
Mairead Murphy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
ARC West reference number, P507
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 0 days
Research summary
Background:\nThe coronavirus pandemic has required rapid change in the way GP practices deliver consultations to meet the sudden increase in demand and carry out social distancing. In March 2020 most UK general practices stopped making appointments in advance. Instead, patients either phone their practice, complete an online written consultation or phone NHS 111 and because of the risk of infection, patients are offered telephone or video consultations, instead of face-to-face. \nThis mixed-methods study will investigate how UK general practice has responded to the pandemic by implementing alternative models of care. This will focus on 1M patients in Bristol North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. \n\nAim:\nTo understand how GP practices are coping with substantially increased demand and an immediate move to remote consultations (written, telephone and video) and to rapidly share successful innovation across general practice.\n\nActivities:\nOver a four-month period we will collect information on 111 calls and GP appointments for the 1 million patients in Bristol North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. We will show how many calls there are from different types of patients (for example by age, or with certain long-term conditions) to highlight areas of need. We will examine the type and length of calls. We will review and assess information from policy briefings, general practice websites, online help platforms and social media websites to see how general practice is coping with the increased demand. Every fortnight we will interview a manager at 20 selected GP practices to examine their innovation. We will use all this information to highlight challenges and areas of innovation.\nWe will send fortnightly reports to the CCG plus a report to NHS England at the end of the project highlighting common challenges in meeting demand and innovative ways practices have coped with this to help them improve support for general practice.
REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A