• Gerard Bury, Susan Smith, Maureen Kelly, Colin Bradley, William Howard, and Mairead Egan.
• Academic General Practice, School of Medicine, UCD, Dublin, Ireland. gerard.bury@ucd.ie.
• Ir J Med Sci. 2021 May 1; 190 (2): 475-480.

BackgroundCOVID-19 required rapid innovation in health systems, in the context of an infection which placed healthcare professionals at high risk; general practice has been a key component of that innovative response. In Ireland, GPs were asked to work in a network of community assessment hubs. A focused training programme in infection control procedures/clinical use of personal protective equipment (PPE) was rapidly developed in advance. University departments of general practice were asked to develop and deliver that training.AimThe aim of this article is to describe infection control procedure training in Ireland, the uptake by GPs and the initial experience of GPs working in this unusual environment.Design And SettingTwo anonymous cross-sectional online surveys are sent to participants in training courses.MethodSurvey 1 followed completion of training; survey 2 followed establishment of the hubs.ResultsSix hundred seventy-five participants (including 439 GPs, 156 GP registrars) took part in the training. Two hundred thirty-nine (50.3%) out of four hundred seventy-five responded to Survey 1-over 95% reported an increase in confidence in the use of PPE. Two hundred ten (44.2%) out of four hundred seventy-five participants responded to Survey 2; 195 had completed hub shifts. Younger, female GPs predominated. Very high levels of infection control procedures were reported. Participants commented positively on teamworking, environment and systems. However, 'real-time' ambulance service data suggest the peak of the surge may have passed by the time the hubs were established.ConclusionAcademic departments, GPs and the Irish health system collaborated effectively to respond to the need for community assessment of COVID-19 patients.

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