**5. Conclusions**

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the provision of healthcare services, resulting in a considerable deterioration in patients' overall health, especially those with chronic diseases. Broad access to telemedicine could significantly reduce disruptions in the provision of healthcare services during the pandemic and prevent, at least to some extent, a deterioration in the patients' quality of life and careers. While remote healthcare solutions cannot completely replace face-to-face medical assessment, they can ensure the continuity of healthcare services and help protect patients, their families and healthcare professionals from disease transmission. The accessibility and effectiveness of medical care are considered key features of the care processes required to ensure high-quality outcomes. Sufficient documentation of the relationship between the accessibility and effectiveness of patient care is essential to support efforts to improve the outcomes of all types of disease treatment, especially chronic disease, and finally to improve the patients' quality of life. The purpose of this study was to examine patient satisfaction with the access to primary healthcare and the effectiveness of treatment in a condition of remote medical care caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The model proposed in this study identified a positive and weak, but statistically significant, relationship between these factors. Although a better access to primary care has a positive effect on treatment effectiveness, there are undoubtedly other factors that affect this effectiveness to a greater extent and it would be worth investigating them in further studies.

Taking into account patients' views on the quality of medical services can help to improve overall healthcare delivery in the primary healthcare that is responsible for most health needs. Improving the quality of this care is of great clinical importance. It can positively impact the early detection of chronic diseases, rapid, effective and patientcentered delivery of medical care, adherence to treatment protocols and thus clinical outcomes. As a result, it can also lead to a better quality of life for patients. In addition, tools in the field of telemedicine, implemented at the primary healthcare level, can support clinical decision-making and thus improve the effectiveness of care by providing healthcare professionals with information and knowledge about a specific patient at the right time during interaction with the patient. According to the WHO, this can promote effective decision-making and enable different healthcare providers to understand and deal with the broad and complex health problems encountered in primary care.

To our knowledge, this is the first study in which access to this healthcare was examined on a sample of Polish primary care patients in the conditions of remote work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of the data from this study showed that patients positively assessed the accessibility of remote services and the treatment effectiveness in teleconsultation conditions. Future research should therefore be focused on patients with chronic diseases requiring coordinated healthcare and should also be extended to

outpatient healthcare facilities. Health variables should also be considered as moderating variables in future studies.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.K.-A. and L.H.; methodology, R.W., M.K.-A. and L.H.; validation, R.W.; formal analysis, R.W.; investigation, R.W., M.K.-A. and L.H.; resources, P.K.; data curation, R.W.; writing—original draft preparation, R.W., M.K.-A. and L.H.; writing—review and editing, R.W., M.K.-A., L.H. and P.K. visualization, R.W.; supervision, M.K.-A. and P.K.; project administration, M.K.-A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. contributed substantially to the work reported.

**Funding:** This research was funded/by IDUB against the COVID-19 project granted by Warsaw University of Technology under the program Excellence Initiative: Research University (IDUB).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Warsaw University of Technology (Certificate of Ethics approval—approved 15 Janaury 2021).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** Data is contained within the article.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
