Media depictions of primary care teleconsultation safety: a thematic analysis of UK newspapers

作者：Kaiyang Song, Molly Hey, Rebecca Payne · 发表于：British Journal of General Practice · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3399/bjgp.2023.0543 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation、COVID-19 and healthcare impacts、Healthcare Systems and Technology

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the widespread roll-out of teleconsultations across primary care services in the UK. The media's depiction of remote consultations, especially regarding their safety, is not well established. These insights are important: newspapers' coverage of healthcare-related news can influence public perception, national policy, and clinicians' job satisfaction. AIM: To explore how the national newspapers in the UK depicted both the direct and indirect consequences of the remote-first approach on patient safety. DESIGN AND SETTING: We performed thematic analysis of newspaper articles that discussed patient safety in primary care teleconsultations, which were published between 21 January 2021 and 22 April 2022. METHOD: We identified relevant articles using the LexisNexis Academic UK database. We categorised data from these articles into codes before developing these into emergent themes through an iterative process. RESULTS: Across the 57 articles identified, the main safety concern identified was missed and/or delayed diagnoses over tele-appointment(s), while isolated cases of inappropriate prescribing were also reported. The media reported that the transition to a remote-first approach reduced the accessibility to primary care appointments for some groups (especially patients with lower digital literacy or access) and heightened the burden on other healthcare services; in particular, there were reports of patient care being compromised acr...