Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Dec;30(1):2382218.
doi: 10.1080/13814788.2024.2382218. Epub 2024 Jul 25.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Primary Health Care through 'health providers' eyes': Α qualitative study of focus groups and individual interviews in Greece

Foteini Michalaki  1 , Korina Marina Triantafillopoulou  1 , Ilias Pagkozidis  1 , Ilias Tirodimos  1 , Theodoros Dardavesis  1 , Zoi Tsimtsiou  1
Affiliations

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Primary Health Care through 'health providers' eyes': Α qualitative study of focus groups and individual interviews in Greece

Foteini Michalaki et al. Eur J Gen Pract. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Primary Health Care (PHC) was the cornerstone of the pandemic response.

Objectives: We aimed to explore the positive and negative impact of the pandemic, during its final wave, through 'PHC providers' eyes', as well as their recommendations towards restructuring and enhancing PHC services.

Methods: A two-phase qualitative study was conducted, pursuing data triangulation from Focus Groups (FGs) and individual, semi-structured interviews for the purposes of data completeness and confirmation (summer 2022 and spring 2023, respectively). A purposive sample of settings was employed, including in total five PHC units according to location with different population distribution; one in Athens (FGs) and four in Northern Greece (interviews). Inductive content analysis was used.

Results: In total, 24 PHC professionals participated in FGs, whereas 17 were individually interviewed. Our findings reflect a general understanding of the pandemic's positive imprint, namely acceleration of digitalisation, establishment of health protection measures, recognition of PHC's role, raise in public awareness of primary prevention, team-cooperation, increase in providers' self-efficacy, appointment of health professionals and re-organisation of accessibility. The negative impact is summarised in fatigue/burnout in PHC providers, patient safety concerns and changes in patients' behaviour. To increase resilience, participants suggest restructuring PHC, recruiting PHC personnel and enhancing digital infrastructure, maintenance of sanitary protection measures, investment in quality, and empowering patients through health literacy.

Conclusion: Based on the lessons learnt, building further on the pandemic-accelerated digitalisation, emphasising on quality improvement and patient safety, ensuring providers' well-being, and empowering citizens through health literacy could be key in promoting PHC resilience.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Greece; Primary Health Care; experiences; health providers; qualitative.

Plain language summary

PHC could build upon digitalisation, its role’s recognition, establishment of protective measures, raise in public awareness of primary prevention, team-cooperation and providers’ self-efficacy that the pandemic brought.Emphasising on quality improvement and patient safety, promoting professionals’ well-being and empowering citizens through health literacy could be key in strengthening PHC resilience.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Coding tree of thematic analysis. Themes and subthemes solely emerged through thematic analysis of Focus Group discussions are in purple, whereas themes and subthemes solely emerged through thematic analysis of individual interviews are in green. Common themes and subthemes are coloured blue.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organisation [Internet] . Third round of the global pulse survey on continuity of essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic: Interim report - November–December 2021; 2022. February 7. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-EHS_continuity-sur....
    1. Sisó-Almirall A, Kostov B, Sánchez E, et al. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary health care disease incidence rates: 2017 to 2020. Ann Fam Med. 2022;20(1):63–68. doi: 10.1370/afm.2731. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kovačec S, Klemenc-Ketiš Z, Poplas-Susič A, et al. Experience and views of primary care physicians involved in reorganisation of care in family medicine practices during COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study from Slovenia. Eur J Gen Pract. 2023;29(2):2193886. doi: 10.1080/13814788.2023.2193886. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Embrett M, Packer TL, Fitzgerald E, et al. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary care physicians and nurses in Nova Scotia: a qualitative exploratory study. CMAJ Open. 2023;11(2):E274–E281. doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20210315. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Makowski L, Schrader H, Parisi S, et al. German general practitioners’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affected their patient care: a qualitative study. Eur J Gen Pract. 2023;29(2):2156498. doi: 10.1080/13814788.2022.2156498. - DOI - PMC - PubMed