Table 3.

Illustrative quotes for theme “Motivation for GP advice lines”

Motivation for GP advice lines	“we got to a nexus where, you know, the…the pandemic was changing, the nature of care was changing, it was moving to obviously needing to be a community based model. The work that [health organisation] was doing on behalf of the district, was not going to be, nor should it be sustainable because it was becoming…endemic’s not the right word, but it was becoming endemic in the community. So there was a real shift towards primary care, which is where the clinician advice line came in.” [Participant 6; male; 47 years] “I think the principle of GP advice line is really to cover the skills and expertise gap in the community, which is actually, I think, really good, because if you look at a organisational challenge or, you know, whole industrial challenge in terms of workforce, you …you find we not only having shortage on staff, we're having shortage on skills and expertise.” [Participant 4; male; 34 years]
Benefits of GP advice lines	Empowered GPs to manage patients in the community “…And I’ve certainly seen that, as I said, the GP’s that called, the next time they call for asthma, they're like, ‘I've done this and this and this, like what I did with the last patient’, and I think the more we get that exposure the lesser the calls will come, because we are actually empowering our GP’s to manage….” [Participant 14; male; 41 years] “We don’t necessarily take over, we actually empower the GP to say “look you can keep this child in your practice, you can see the child in two days’ time” [Participant 14; male; 41 years] “So, if the GP isn't sure about a COVID sort of thing, they will need to find someone to ask, right? So-…and then, because we are very familiar with that, and the policy changes every day, so it's good to… to have us supporting the GP's in the community and fill their expertise shortage or gap” [Participant 4; male; 34 years]
	Increased GP confidence “…so you can just ring and they can say ‘yes you're right’ or ‘no I would suggest this’ so it's that…that confidence that you're making the right decision by the patient…” [Participant 9; female; 59 years] “it just gave them the confidence, I think” [Participant 3; Female; 56 years]
	Easier referral pathways “it means the patient gets seen in a timely manner, they don’t have to sit in the emergency department with a whole pile of coughing people…So, it allows them to get seen in a timely manner in the public system, but without having to go through the emergency department.” [Participant 9; female; 59 years] “[we] set up a GP advice line where GP’s could talk directly to a staff specialist about a COVID patient and that we would also have referral back to us available to GP’s. So if they were seeing a patient but risk factors changed, they really declined, the GP wasn't feeling confident anymore, they could refer the patient back under our care. [Participant 2; Female; 52 years]