Prioritising respiratory primary healthcare in the COVID era

The necessary restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have created a backlog of patients in primary care who have perhaps delayed coming forward with respiratory health concerns, whose respiratory condition has worsened during lockdown and those whose assessment or treatment has been delayed. As we emerge from this seismic shift in primary healthcare provision, there is an urgent need to work through this backlog of patients. In this article we bring together our top priorities to help service managers support healthcare practitioners (HCPs) providing respiratory healthcare to prioritise their time and efforts to ensure that patients are evaluated, diagnosed and, where necessary, started on treatment to manage their respiratory disease.

In this article by the PCRS service development committee we provide some simple steps to help prioritise respiratory services.