Special issue: COVID-19 and Primary Care

How is the COVID-19 pandemic influencing the ability of international health systems to deliver high quality primary care? Read Guest Editor Dr Luke Allen’s introduction to this special issue, which includes managing the pandemic in rural Africa, the response from six well-resourced countries, and the relationship between perceived ‘strong’ primary care and COVID-19 mortality.

Naturietic peptide blood tests and heart failure

In this observational study from the Netherlands, Valk and colleagues examined the frequency of natriuretic peptide requests by GPs in excluding or confirming a diagnosis of heart failure. Their results suggest under-utilisation of this blood test. The authors encourage GPs to increase test requests in excluding heart failure and for opportunistic screening. 

Spirometry to detect early lung disease in adults

There is limited evidence on the value of using spirometry in early adults to predict the later development of lung disease. In this Danish population-based study, spirometry in two cohorts, aged 30-49 years, and 45-64 years was shown to have a high predictive value in identifying cases of subsequent lung disease. The authors suggest that this evidence should encourage GPs to use spirometry more frequently in younger adults as a predictive tool.

Did social distancing reduce the spread of COVID-19?

In this study, 5-weekly COVID-19 incidence rates per 100 000 people for 149 English Upper Tier Local Authorities were examined between 16 March and 19 April 2020. The results suggest that COVID-19 rates strongly decreased in the most densely populated areas of the UK. These findings have substantial implications for the easing of social distancing measures, particularly within highly populated areas.

Medical students' view of general practice

Medical schools globally do not have sufficient numbers of graduates choosing primary care. Sahota and colleagues spoke to 51 medical students in Canada and the UK to explore this further. Their findings suggest that medical students often perceive primary care as a less intellectually stimulating discipline, associating it with teaching rather than seeing it as an academic or research-based specialty.