Primary care visits in a regional area in southern China before and during Covid pandemic

Background: Primary care visits significantly reflects the population’s health needs and service operation. In the background of Chinese health system characteristics and Covid-19 pandemic, knowledge about the quantify and disease profiles of patient visits will inform health planning and resource allocation and discipline development of general practice. This study was to describe a local primary care system, its patient visits and disease profiles of the patients before and during the Covid 19 pandemic. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted based on a retrospective review of electronic health records in 2018–2021 within a County Integrated Health Organization in a rural area in southern China. Descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney U test were employed for data analysis. Results: The primary care system consisted of hospital outpatient clinics and 19 community health centres. Community had similar quantity, but older age of patients compared to those of the hospital across the four years. Female visits were slightly higher than male visits in the first three years, but nearly doubled male visits in 2021. The age group of 40–64 had the largest proportion of total visits each year, while 0–5 group had the smallest proportion. Hypertension, respiratory infections, diabetes and general examination constituted a major part of top ten common ICD diagnoses. General Practice clinics had a miniscule part of total hospital visits. Conclusions: The study provides a comprehensive profile of primary care service utilization. Community acted significantly in the service provision. The role of General Practice clinics in the hospital needs to be precisely defined.