Perception of users who sought healthcare in Primary Care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Fortaleza, Brazil

Introduction: To stop the COVID-19 pandemic from spreading, health systems worldwide prioritized emergency consultations over primary care. Objective: Evaluate users’ perceptions of medical care received by public Primary Health Care (PHC) services in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, during the pandemic from April 2020 to July 2021. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving interviews and electronic medical records (EMR) analysis. From August to November 2021, 126 participants were enrolled in three primary healthcare units. Participants were surveyed with a 13-item questionnaire to evaluate their perception of the care they received. An ordinal logistic regression analysis examined the factors influencing users’ perceptions of the service they received. Results: Of the 126 participants, 107 were females (84.9%) and 19 were males (15.1%), with an average age of 39.7 years. Among the participants, 42.9% waited for care for up to 60 minutes, and 69% believed the pandemic affected this waiting time. Most individuals (78.6%) agreed that there needed to be an increase in the number of doctors to ensure adequate care. Distancing, masks, and face shields hindered appointments, according to 16.7% of those interviewed. The majority (53.2%) rated the service received as “very good.” EMR data from 58 participants was collected. The most common ICD-10 code groups in the emergency department were general consultations and non- specific complaints (25.2%), respiratory symptoms and cases of COVID-19 (11.5%), and prenatal care (9.6%). The factors that influenced their perceptions of care included believing that there were enough doctors available to attend appointments, believing that the pandemic interfered with waiting times, the accessibility of health professionals for advice, being a woman, and the number of times they obtained medication. Conclusions: Most participants classified the medical care received as very good, despite the pandemic overload and changes in the work of healthcare professionals.