RESULTS
A total of 77 911 veterans were targeted for the intervention, and 18 577 GPs were identified as their main care provider (mean number of veterans per GP: 4.2 [standard deviation 4.4]). Among those GPs, 61.2% (11 375) were eligible to receive secure-message documents. The 51 052 veterans who had these GPs as their main care providers were included in the digital group. The remaining 7202 GPs were not eligible for digital delivery, and the 26 859 veterans under their care were included in the postal group. Veterans in both groups were similar in age, gender, and geographical distribution (Baseline comparison between digital and postal groupsPA total of 51 052 individualised messages were sent, via secure message, to GPs in four sequential batches, starting on 29 April 2020. The remaining 26 859 messages were sent via the postal service to those GPs who were ineligible for secure-message delivery. From the cohort of 51 052 veterans and their GPs targeted for secure message, only four (<0.01%) messages were received from users who advised that they were not the primary care provider of the targeted patient; this suggested that the algorithm for identifying the primary GP was highly accurate.The total number of appointments with GPs increased substantially over the course of April 2020, from 20 425 visits in the last week of March (25–31 March) to 25 214 in the last week of April (22–28 April). The appointment numbers increased with both the primary GP or other GPs, and was largely driven by services provided by telehealth (
