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Correspondence to Author: jameer Oizg, 

King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the roles and responsibilities of the healthcare system and improved the general quality of health services offered to the community. Initially, the majority of healthcare settings treated emergency cases and COVID-19 patients exclusively, which made it difficult for other symptomatic patients with other acute or chronic illnesses that were not COVID-19 to receive standard care [1]. In the midst of combating the COVID-19 pandemic, medical and surgical emergencies are often overlooked inside the healthcare system. Health services are disrupted by COVID-19, particularly for those with chronic or noncommunicable diseases who need ongoing monitoring [2]. The COVID-19 pandemic should force governments to make plans for handling issues pertaining to the population’s health. The needs of women, children, the elderly with diseases unrelated to COVID, and other people with specific needs should be prioritized. It is not appropriate to enable the weak to get weaker. Even during times of peace, the most susceptible demographics are women, children, and the elderly. If the services for these populations are not maintained, the MDG and SDG benefits risk being nullified (1).
Telephone triage is a technique where doctors assess patients’ symptoms over the phone and decide on the best course of action using standardized criteria. For a physician to examine patients without making physical contact, they must possess strong assessment skills training. In order to accurately identify the patient’s symptoms and deliver the appropriate care plan based on those symptoms, they employ evidence-based protocols in conjunction with their expertise of disease processes and symptoms [3]. The lack or uneven application of defined guidelines is leading to an increasing evaluation of the consistency and quality of telephone triage services at many community health centers. Over the past twenty years, there has been an increasing amount of interest in health centers obtaining defined methods for evaluation that triage nurses can utilize [4,5]. Because of this, community health centers all throughout the country are starting to create strategic plans to put in place accurate, dependable, and reasonably priced telephone triage systems.

METHODS:Study Design: Primary healthcare centers in the Western region of Saudi Arabia were the focus of this qualitative descriptive study, which also involved the selection of the physicians who work there. The scientists used semi-structured interviews as a means of gathering data from doctors employed at particular primary healthcare facilities in the Western region of Saudi Arabia.

RESULTS:In total, 97 physicians participated in the study; 44 (45%) of the participants were men and 52 (55%) were women. Of the physicians, 21 (22%) were general practitioners (GPs) or staff physicians, 3 % were registrar doctors, 12 (24%), assistant consultants, 54 (56%), consultants, and 7 % were family physician consultants. Regarding the status of primary care management practices during COVID-19, the majority of participants expressed that they had reduced collaboration with colleagues in order to minimize direct contact. They also mentioned that they had applied the MOH protocol, which involves taking safety precautions, social distancing, and reducing contact. Regarding the workload, participants’ opinions varied. Some stated that it has increased due to the ease of access to telephone consultations, while others stated that it decreased initially but has since returned to its previous level. Still others agreed that virtualization reduced the load but increased responsibility.

Citation:

jameer Oizg. A qualitative study conducted in 2021 among National Guard primary care physicians in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia examined the effects of the Coved 19 pandemic on the fundamental functions of primary care. The Journal of Virology 2024.