ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2021
Changing media depictions of remote consulting in COVID-19: analysis of UK newspapers.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- When do health and social care practitioners consider digital healthcare to be 'good care' for people with co-occurring alcohol-use disorder and depression? a qualitative analysis of practitioners' accounts.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Use of an electronic consultation system in an inner city general practice: a mixed-methods service evaluation.BMJ open quality · 2025Article
- Article
- Social and Ethical Aspects of Remote and Hybrid Care in the Special Allocation Scheme in general practice (SEARCH): A mixed methods feasibility study protocol.NIHR open research · 2025Article
- Understanding access to general practice through the lens of candidacy: a critical review of the literature.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Review
- Media depictions of primary care teleconsultation safety: a thematic analysis of UK newspapers.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- Understanding COVID-19 Impacts on the Health Workforce: AI-Assisted Open-Source Media Content Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- The COVID-19 ambulance response assessment (CARA) study: a national survey of ambulance service healthcare professionals' preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.British paramedic journal · 2024Article
- What kind of a problem is loneliness? Representations of connectedness and participation from a study of telepresence technologies in the UK.Frontiers in digital health · 2024Article
- Digital health and care: emerging from pandemic times.BMJ health & care informatics · 2023Review
- Impact of Increased Patient-Clinician Virtual Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Student Enthusiasm for Future General Practice Careers.Family medicine · 2023Article
- UK newspapers 'on the warpath': media analysis of general practice remote consulting in 2021.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Article
- Visit Types in Primary Care With Telehealth Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review.JMIR medical informatics · 2022Review
- General Practice Nurses' experiences of changing care delivery during COVID-19. Implications for future practice: Qualitative study protocol.Journal of advanced nursing · 2022Article
- Undergraduate medical teaching with remote consultations in general practice: a realist evaluation.BJGP open · 2022Article
- Virtual Care and the Inverse Care Law: Implications for Policy, Practice, Research, Public and Patients.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Socioeconomic differences in help seeking for colorectal cancer symptoms during COVID-19: a UK-wide qualitative interview study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Article
- Who cares where the doctors are? The expectation of mobility and its effect on health outcomes.Sociology of health & illness · 2022Article
- Acceptability of, and preferences for, remote consulting during COVID-19 among older patients with two common long-term musculoskeletal conditions: findings from three qualitative studies and recommendations for practice.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2022Article
- Primary care clinical management following self-harm during the first wave of COVID-19 in the UK: population-based cohort study.BMJ open · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRemote consulting was introduced quickly into UK general practice in March 2020 as an emergency response to COVID-19. In July 2020, 'remote-first' became long-term government policy.
aimTo explore how this change was portrayed in national newspapers and how depictions changed over time. DESIGN AND
settingThematic analysis of newspaper articles referring to remote GP consultations from two time periods: 2 March-31 May 2020 (period 1) and 30 July-12 August 2020 (period 2).
methodArticles were identified through, and extracted from, LexisNexis Academic UK. A coding system of themes and narrative devices was developed and applied to the data. The analysis was developed iteratively, amending the coding structure as new data were added.
resultsRemote consulting was widely covered in newspapers. Articles in period 1 depicted it positively, equating digital change with progress and linking novel technological solutions with improved efficiency and safety (for example, infection control) in a service that was overdue for modernisation. Articles in period 2 questioned the persistence of a remote-first service now that the pandemic was waning, emphasising, for example, missed diagnoses, challenges to the therapeutic relationship, and digital inequalities.
conclusionAs the first wave of the pandemic came and went, media depictions of remote consulting evolved from an 'efficiency and safety' narrative to a 'risks, inequalities, and lack of choice' narrative. To restore public trust in general practice, public communication should emphasise the wide menu of consulting options now available to patients and measures being taken to assure safety and avoid inequity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.