COVID-19 pandemic impact on primary care emergency services activity: Comparative study between 2019 and 2020 periods

Objective: To compare the care provided by primary care emergency services during the COVID19 lockdown (March-June 2020) and the same period in 2019. Design: Retrospective descriptive study. Setting: Basic Health Area of Granada.Population: 10.790 emergency reports, 3.319 in 2020 and 7.471 in 2019. Outcomes: Age, sex, service, shifts, referrals, priority levels, care times, previous processes, and reasons for consultation. T-Student and Chi Square were used for continuous and categorical variables. Effect size (Cohen's d) and OR along with 95% CI were calculated. Results: The patients attended by primary care emergency services decreased in 2020 com-pared to 2019, but the percentage of Priority V cases (p < 0.01), home discharges (p = 0.01) and hospital transfers (p < 0.01) increased, and referrals to family doctors (p < 0.01) decreased. In 2020, the percentage of emergencies at night (p < 0.01) and in low-income neighborhoods (p < 0.01) increased. Waiting time for classification decreased (p < 0.01), but total care time increased in 2020 (p < 0.01). The patients seen in 2020 were older (p < .001), and with a greater number of previous processes (p < 0.01), highlighting patients with anxiety, depression, or somatization (p < 0.01) and diabetes (p = 0.041). Consultations related to various symptoms of COVID19, mental health problems and chronic pathologies increased. Conclusions: Primary care emergency services offer additional advantages in situations such as the COVID19 pandemic, as they allow channeling part of the health demand. (c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).