Aims: To investigate changes in general practice consultation patterns in response to reduced face-to-face patient contact during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: A retrospective before and after case notes review study of one urban general practice to investigate patient contact in the first two weeks of New Zealand general practices' COVID-19 response in 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
Results: Twenty percent of patients had contact with the practice in both samples, with similar proportions by age, gender, ethnicity, deprivation and presence of multimorbidity or mental health diagnoses. Similar numbers of acute illness, accident-related and prevention patient contacts occurred in both samples, with more long-term condition-related contact in 2020. While 70% of patient contacts were face-to-face in 2019, 21% were face-to-face in 2020. Most acute illness, accident-related and long-term condition-related contacts were able to be provided through virtual means, but most prevention-related contacts were face-to-face.
Conclusions: This single practice study showed total patient contact was similar over both sample periods, but most contact in 2020 was virtual. Further longitudinal multi-practice studies to confirm these findings and describe future consultation patterns are needed to inform general practice service delivery post-COVID-19.