How to provide an effective primary health care in fighting against severe acute respiratory syndrome: the experiences of two cities
Open accessAbstract
Objectives This study was designed to compare the response and management of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) by the family physicians of the Hong Kong and the Toronto health systems, and to provide evidence to improve health policy and practices in a newly emerging infectious disease.Methods A questionnaire was sent to family medicine tutors affiliated with either the Chinese University of Hong Kong or the University of Toronto in 2003. The survey questions covered training for SARS, the use of screening tools, an anxiety scale, clinical practices, and demographic data.Results 137 (74.8%) and 51 (34%) doctors from Hong Kong and Toronto replied to the questionnaire, respectively. Most (80-84.6%) had no training in infectious disease control and were not confident in dealing with SARS (68.1-73.5%). In Hong Kong, the screening tools provided by international agencies did not meet the local needs. In Toronto, lack of a centralized hospital admission policy and fully public laboratory probably resulted in appointment cancellation and dissatisfaction. There may be a need for deployment of personnel between institutions but loss of income was not a major concern.Conclusions Sharing the "lessons learned" in different regions during a SARS outbreak will help prepare for the next epidemic.
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Lack of specialised training was a risk factor for anxiety among healthcare workers during viral outbreaks.
“Lack of specialised training was a risk factor for anxiety (Matsuishi et al., 2012; Wong et al., 2007; Çalişkan and Dost, 2020)”
From Impact of viral epidemic outbreaks on mental health of healthcare workers: a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis (2020) · cites this paper as Wong et al., 2007
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- Authors
- Wong, W. C. W., Wong, S. Y. S., Lee, A., & Goggins, W. B.
- Affiliations
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Venue
- American Journal of Infection Control
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-02
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 50-55
- ISSN
- 0196-6553 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7132727
- OpenAlex
- W2041842852
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- American Journal of Infection Control (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Disaster Response and Management
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Travel-related health issues
- Keywords
- SARS, primary care, general practitioners, clinical screening tool, physician anxiety, hospital admission policy, public laboratories, health policy, epidemic preparedness, Hong Kong, Toronto
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Clinical Competence, Data Collection, Disease Outbreaks, Family Practice, Health Policy, Hong Kong, Humans, Learning, Mass Screening, Middle Aged, Ontario, Patient Admission, Primary Health Care, Professional Practice, Infection Control, Communicable Diseases, Emerging, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
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