How did childrens’ contacts with GPs change during COVID-19?

Research led by Dr Kim Foley found a two-fold rise in remote consulting during lockdowns mitigated falls in childrens’ face-to-face GP contacts.

Children and young people’s contacts with general practitioners (GPs) in England dropped by 41%, during the first COVID-19 lockdown from March to June 2020 compared with previous years. Although the stay-at-home advice meant that face-to-face contacts with those aged 0 to 24 years fell by 88%, a more than twofold increase in telephone, video or online (remote) contacts enabled GPs to provide first contact care throughout the pandemic period. Remote contacts increased most for infants, who prior to the pandemic would see a GP 3 to 6 times per year.

Researchers at Imperial College London funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research examined 47,607,765 electronic health records collected from GP practices in England from over 4 million children and young people from 2015 to 2020. They studied the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown on total, face-to-face, and remote contacts with children and young people aged 0 to 24. Children aged 1-14 years had greater falls in overall contacts with GPs compared with infants and those aged 15-24 years.

There were large falls in contacts with GPs for respiratory illnesses, which is partially explained by children getting fewer viral infections. In contrast, for conditions such as diabetes or urinary tract infections, which were less affected by the lockdown, GP contacts had lesser overall falls (although there was a large shift from face-to-face to remote). Despite the challenges of the pandemic, these findings indicate that GPs largely continued to provide accessible acute care for children and young people.

“Our study shows a huge shift to remote contacts during the first COVID-19 lockdown that mitigated the overall falls in children’s contacts with GPs. Moving forward, more research is needed to determine the optimal combination between face-to-face and remote contacts and it is important to consider the preferences of children and families.” - Dr Kim Foley, from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, and the first author on this study.