Articles: pandemics.
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Annals of family medicine · May 2022
Integrating General Practice Into the Australian COVID-19 Response: A Description of the General Practitioner Respiratory Clinic Program in Australia.
Integrating primary care with the health response is key to managing pandemics and other health emergencies. In recognition of this, the Australian Government established a network of respiratory clinics led by general practitioners in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as part of broader measures aimed at supporting primary care. General practitioner (GP) respiratory clinics provide holistic face-to-face assessment and treatment to those with respiratory symptoms in an environment with strict protocols for infection prevention and control. ⋯ These clinics used a standardized data collection tool that has provided the largest and most complete primary care surveillance database of respiratory illness in Australia. The success of the GP respiratory clinic model was made possible due to strong partnerships with Primary Health Networks and individual general practices that rapidly shifted operations to embrace this new approach. This article describes the development and early implementation of this model.
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Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, access to healthcare services may have become difficult, which may have led to an increase in chronic diseases and multimorbidity. ⋯ The incidence of multimorbidity during a six-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic was 27.1% in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
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Internal medicine journal · May 2022
The workplace and psychosocial experiences of Australian junior doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Junior doctors experience high levels of psychological distress and emotional exhaustion. The current Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in significant changes to healthcare globally, with quantitative studies demonstrating increased fatigue, depression and burnout in junior doctors. However, there has been limited qualitative research to examine junior doctors' experiences, challenges and beliefs regarding management of future crises. ⋯ Challenging workplace cultures and conditions, which have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, are associated with poor psychological well-being in junior doctors. There exists a need for long-term, widespread improvements in workplace culture and working conditions to ensure junior doctors' well-being, facilitate workforce retention and enhance the safety and quality of patient care in Australia.
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Stay-at-home orders, social isolation recommendations, and fear of COVID-19 exposure have led to delays in children's preventive health services during the pandemic. Delays can lead to missed opportunities for early screening and detection of health problems, and increased risks for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Understanding prevalence of and reasons for missed, delayed, or skipped preventive health services is important for developing strategies to achieve rapid catch-up of essential health services. ⋯ Physician office closures and concern about COVID-19 exposure resulted in over one-quarter of parents delaying preventive services for their children since the pandemic began. Coordinated efforts are needed to achieve rapid catch-up of preventive services and routine vaccines.
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The practice of neurosurgery has been profoundly affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Kazakhstan. Many elective surgeries were postponed or canceled, which resulted in difficulties in hospitalization. In the present study, we aimed to describe the effects of COVID-19 on neurosurgical practice and to determine whether a discrepancy was present in the effects between metropolises and regional cities in Kazakhstan. ⋯ The true effect of the pandemic remains unknown for Kazakhstan. A discrepancy between the metropolitan and regional cities was found in the present study. Efforts are required and relevant guidelines must be developed to ensure that the neurosurgical treatment of various conditions continues to be available during health emergencies and that the disparities are addressed.