Involving parents and carers in research about children’s healthcare experiences during covid-19

Parents and carers were invited to a 2-hour online forum to share their experiences of accessing healthcare services for their children during the Covid-19 lockdown. 

Our research uses anonymised patient data collected from GP practices from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink in the UK. Our work is specifically looking at the number of times children and young people contacted their GP (in March to June 2020) compared to previous years.

Parents and carers’ shared their experiences highlighting the stresses of lockdown restrictions on families, and the need for healthcare services to provide reassurance and flexibility in how they could be accessed during times of crisis. Parents/carers spoke about what worked well, specifically mentioning the responsiveness of communication via online messaging systems and feeling supported by their GPs in terms of booking appointments proactively. Parents felt that their health care professionals took the time to listen carefully to their concerns and they did not feel rushed. However, parents also shared some of the challenges they faced in accessing healthcare during the lockdown, particularly in managing the shift from face-to-face to online/telephone appointments. Parents reported challenges with sending pictures to the GP in advance of telephone appointments. They felt pictures often didn’t accurately show the issue they wanted to discuss, and at times it was difficult to get the IT to work to send the photos requested. Parents also expressed concerns about potential health inequalities as it was difficult for some to access videos, websites and other resources shared by the GP due to a lack of IT literacy and/or access to stable Wi-Fi at home.