Dr Sean Stevens, past chair of the Royal Australian College of GPs WA, reflects on a remarkable year.
Unprecedented seems to be the word for this pandemic.
Unprecedented circumstances, unprecedented health crisis, unprecedented vaccine program, unprecedented response. And through all of these unprecedented happenings, our profession was at the centre of it.
I have never been so proud to be a doctor and a GP seeing how our profession responded to this crisis. It is little wonder that the public perception of the health profession is at an all-time high.
While we have had some lockdowns, we have escaped lightly compared to our eastern states colleagues, and especially to our international colleagues. Pivoting rapidly from face-to-face consults to telehealth became eminently achievable and seeing our general practice teams pull together to do this was truly impressive.
Seeing patients for carpark consults, social distancing, masks and elbow bumps have become the norm.
From a COVID perspective, however, general practice has been dominated by the vaccine roll-out. As at the end of October, GPs and our teams have delivered 54% of all vaccines in Australia and this number is climbing.
State and Federal governments have acknowledged this, and many practices have done this at a financial loss. When the government announced the rebate, at a compulsory bulk-bill Level A consult equivalent, the argument was made that it would be a mass vaccination program and so the encounter would be quick. The controversy with AstraZeneca and thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) soon put paid to this notion, but unfortunately the rebate didn’t change.
The community anxiety around AZ reached fever pitch in May and June when vaccination rates dropped, people became very confused, Pfizer was not widely available, and people just wanted answers.
This is where the trusted bond that many Australians have with their GP was invaluable, we were able to have the conversations, allay any unfounded concerns and put risks in context. It did become rather repetitive at times, but I think we did the community a great service.
At a personal level, I saw our GP-led Respiratory Clinic morph from a clinic that saw, assessed, treated and swabbed people with respiratory symptoms, to a clinic that vaccinated seven days a week. Our team showed amazing resilience and grew, adapted and changed, managing to vaccinate 30,000 people in seven months in a safe, efficient and caring manner.
The unsung heroes, though, are the GPs in every corner of Australia that will set up a clinic to vaccinate six people, with all of the logistics, time out of practice, cost, just to ensure that their patients are safe, and the vaccine program proceeds.
I’ve seen general practices and Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations go to extraordinary lengths to ensure all people have the opportunity to be vaccinated, chasing up all of our fellow Australians who are vulnerable or hesitant to ensure they are protected before COVID hits.
As we near the end of our second year of living with COVID, many of us are exhausted. A lot has been asked of the health industry and front-line doctors and nurses in particular. I hope that next year will bring some respite, but somehow, I doubt it, as unfortunately we are still living in unprecedented times.