Mixed messages: Do automated messages in general practice tell parents they are open for unwell children in the covid-19 era?

© 2020, JMN Medical Education Ltd. All rights reserved. Background-Across the UK there has been a reduction in children and young people (CYP) presenting acutely to hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Automated telephone messages have been used as a tool by General Practice to direct service users to the correct service or point of care for some time. As such, it is unsurprising that automated messages may be used to try to address some questions about the pandemic prior to speaking t impossible o a call handler at a practice. Aim-To investigate the initial advice that parents and carers may be receiving from their first point of contact when telephoning their local General Practice (GP) and whether this considered CYP specifically. Design and Setting-This descriptive study was conducted in response to rapid changes which GP have had to undergo in response to the current global pandemic. Method-GPs within four Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England were telephoned and the researches recorded whether they had automated messaging and whether certain key pieces of information were given in these messages. It was particularly noted whether any age segmentation was applied in the advice given. Results-Of the 537 practices included, 81.9% (n=440) had an automated message, and of those, 65.9% (n=290) mentioned ‘coronavirus’ or ‘COVID-19’ in their message. Only 1.1% (n=5) practices mentioned children specifically. Conclusion-Adapting the messaging that parents receive when they first contact GP to include CYP would be possible and may reduce the number of unwell CYP who have delays in receiving medical care.