A quantitative analysis of patients’ use of government health centres in Malta during 2020-2022

Abstract

BACKGROUND: At present in Malta, primary health care is delivered via the publicly funded health service - Primary HealthCare - and a parallel running private health system. The Electronic Patient Record (EPR) started to be utilized in Primary HealthCare in 2020.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this cross-sectional observational study was to analyze patients’ use of health centres between January 2020 (which coincides with the start of use of EPR) until August 2022.

METHOD: Data was collected from the Electronic Patient Record which is the database used by Primary HealthCare in Malta which was then analyzed using Excel 2010. Variables collected included patient’s age, gender, number of patients visiting the health centre, patient’s locality, and whether it was a telephone or face-to-face consultation.

RESULTS: The results clearly demonstrated a rise in patients making use of health centres over the period 2020-2022. Mosta Health Centre was observed to be the busiest health centre. Health centre patients’ use in summer was significantly different from use in winter. Furthermore, the female population seemed to be attending these clinics more than their male counterparts.

CONCLUSION: Over the years a trend was noted where telephone consultations were not popular in 2020 but as the pandemic went on patients became more aware and made use of telemedicine. The majority of patients using telemedicine were aged 70+. However, as the social distancing measures of COVID-19 were eased in 2022, the majority of patients opted for face-to-face GP consultations once again.