An investigation into General Practitioners’ experience with Long Covid

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Date
2024-08-20
Authors
Farrell, Aisling
O’Flynn, James
Jennings, Aisling A.
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Publisher
Springer Nature Ltd.
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-024-03782-7
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Abstract
Background: Long Covid (LC) is the continuation or development of new symptoms after initial COVID-19 infection. Little is known about General Practitioners’ (GP) experience of managing patients with LC. Aims: The aim of this study is to establish GP experiences with LC. Methods: A survey was designed and piloted in three training practices prior to distribution. The survey was completed by doctors working in GP training scheme practices in Cork, Ireland. Results: Fifty-three of one hundred and sixty invited GPs completed the survey, indicating a 33% response rate. 8% (4/53) of participants agreed and 0% (0/53) strongly agreed with the statement they were “confident in diagnosing Long Covid”. 81% (43/53) were not confident in treating patients with LC. 70% (37/53) were unaware of indications for referral to secondary care. 38% (20/53) were aware of the referral pathways to local LC clinics. 93% (49/53) agreed there were educational deficits regarding LC. Conclusions: There was a lack of confidence in the diagnosis and management of LC, and in the interface with secondary care. There is demand for educational interventions to assist GPs with their care of patients with this emerging condition.
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Keywords
Covid , General practitioner , Long Covid , Patient care
Citation
Farrell, A., O’Flynn, J. and Jennings, A. (2024) 'An investigation into General Practitioners’ experience with Long Covid', Irish Journal of Medical Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-024-03782-7
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https://hdl.handle.net/10468/16451
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General Practice - Journal Articles
Medicine - Journal Articles
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© 2024, the Authors. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.