Anne Simmenroth, Denise Velho, Nele Michels
on behalf of EURACT

Introduction

In December 2019, the SARS CoV 2 virus was detected for the first time in the Hubei province in China (1). It then spread rapidly across the entire globe and was declared a pandemic by WHO on March 12th of 2020 (2,3). General practitioners (GPs) in many countries had to adapt quickly to constantly changing conditions and take protective measures for patients and their teams (3). Different geographic areas and countries were affected by the pandemic in very different ways. Protective material (e.g. FFP2 masks, gowns) were scarce in many places (4). The workload in the various settings and countries was very different: GPs in less affected regions reported significantly lower patient numbers for usual care during the lockdown, others, who were involved in testing or care of patients in nursing homes or outpatient clinics, described a severe overload and were at risk of infecting themselves.

At the beginning of the pandemic, EURACT as a network of European GPs, seized the opportunity to ask each representative, from a total of 41 countries, about the local medical care situation, the (actual) legal conditions and the concrete medical everyday life (e.g. testing, triage, protective clothing).

We are aware that the data described is only a snapshot from the very beginning of the pandemic and partly out of date today. However, the goal of this survey was to share experiences and good practices on a personal, organisational and political level with the chance to share a variety of experiences.

Please see the full report here: https://euract.woncaeurope.org/sites/euractdev/files/documents/resources/documents/euractquickcovid-19studyreport2020.pdf