Family practice
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The pandemic state caused by SARS CoV-2 came to overburden all levels of healthcare, including Primary Care. In Portugal, most patients were followed in ambulatory, monitored by phone calls or face-to-face visits by their General Practitioner. ⋯ Male gender, age and the presence of comorbidities are the main determinants for hospitalization and death. These COVID-19 patients should receive a higher attention when they come to primary care for assistance.
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Deprescribing (planned, supervised discontinuation) of statins may be considered in some older persons. This should be carefully discussed between patients and GPs. ⋯ GPs prefer brief discussions on a range of topics when discussing statin deprescribing but have differing views on which topics are most important. For deprescribing communication tools to be useful to GPs in clinical practice, they may need to focus on brief coverage of the range of relevant topics. Future work should evaluate patient preferences, and opportunities for education and training for GPs on deprescribing communication.
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Ageing is accompanied by many changes that make it more difficult for nutritional needs to be met. Management of malnutrition in older adults requires collaboration among multiple clinical disciplines. ⋯ IPCP has a strong and significant correlation with the nutritional status in older adults. The IPCP implementation could significantly improve their nutritional status after the IPCP implementation compared to usual care.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has focussed attention on models of healthcare that avoid face-to-face contacts between clinicians and patients, and teleconsultations have become the preferred mode of primary care delivery. However, the effectiveness of remote consultations in this setting remains unclear. ⋯ Teleconsultations via telephone or videoconference are an effective alternative to face-to-face consultations for many patients attending primary care and mental health services. Teleconsultations have the potential to deliver time-efficient and lower-cost interventions at a distance while improving access to healthcare.