Impact of COVID-19 on primary care contacts with children and young people in England: longitudinal trends study 2015–2020

Kimberley A Foley; Edward J Maile; Alex Bottle; Francesca K Neale; Russell M Viner; Simon E Kenny; Azeem Majeed; Dougal S Hargreaves; Sonia Saxena

doi:10.3399/BJGP.2021.0643

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Figure 1.
The number of contacts with GPs in each week from January 2015 to October 2020.
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Figure 2.
Number of weekly contacts with GPs by sex. a) Number of face-to-face contacts for each week and b) number of remote contacts for each week.
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Figure 3.
Number of weekly face-to-face and remote contacts with GPs by selected respiratory illnesses. a) Respiratory tract infections and b) asthma.
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Figure 4.
Number of weekly face-to-face and remote contacts with GPs by selected primary care sensitive conditions. a) Urinary tract infections and b) diabetes.

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The COVID-19 pandemic response led to health system reorganisation globally, but its impact on children and young people’s (CYP’s) access to primary care is largely unknown. CYP’s health contacts with GPs fell by 41%, equivalent to 2.8 million fewer contacts in England, during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown from March to June 2020 compared with the previous 5 years. Face-to-face contacts with GPs fell by 88%, with a corresponding increase in remote contacts. The greatest falls in face-to-face contacts occurred among children aged 1–14 years (>90%). Remote contacts with infants and with young people aged 15–24 years more than doubled, mitigating some of the total falls in these age groups. GP contacts for respiratory illnesses fell 74% during lockdown compared with previous years, whereas there was less of a fall (31%) for contacts for common non-transmissible conditions (urinary tract infections, appendicitis, diabetes, and epilepsy).

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Table 1.

Changes in the numbers of contacts with GPs by age group from March 21 2020 to June 5 2020 (week 13 to week 23) compared with the 5-year average during the same time period (week 13 to week 23) in 2015 to 2019

Age group, years	Total number of contacts (2020)	Average number of total contacts (2015–2019)	Change in total number of contacts with GP, n (%; 95% CI)	Change in remote contact with GP, n (%; 95% CI)	Change in face-to-face contact with GP, n (%; 95% CI)
<1	142 674	201 861	−59 187 (−29.3; 24.4 to 34.3)	+65 401 (+165.2; 148.4 to 182.2)	−124 588 (−76.8; 74.6 to 79.0)
1–4	169 846	357 496	−187 650 (−52.5; 47.4 to 57.1)	+65 169 (+80.1; 64.9 to 99.1)	−252 819 (−91.5; 90.5 to 92.4)
5–9	134 025	265 913	−131 888 (−49.6; 45.3 to 53.8)	+56 241 (+94.1; 79.4 to 111.0)	−188 128 (−91.2; 90.3 to 92.1)
10–14	111 090	229 903	−118 813 (−51.7; 46.7 to 56.2)	+45 089 (+90.0; 72.4 to 110.2)	−163 903 (−91.1; 90.0 to 92.1)
15–19	186 084	281 719	−95 635 (−33.9; 28.1 to 39.7)	+99 518 (+161.9; 141.1 to 183.5)	−195 153 (−88.6; 87.3 to 89.9)
20–24	295 113	415 982	−120 869 (−29.1; 24.3 to 33.8)	+155 881 (+155.6; 139.4 to 172.4)	−276 749 (−87.6; 86.5 to 88.7)
Total	1 038 832	1 752 874	−714 042 (−40.7; 35.8 to 45.1)	+487 298 (+124.2; 107.6 to 141.3)	−1 201 340 (−88.3; 87.2 to 89.4)

Supplementary Data

Supplementary material is not copyedited or typeset, and is published as supplied by the author(s). The author(s) retain(s) responsibility for its accuracy.