As the main providers of essential pediatric services, the capabilities of community general practitioners (GPs) in managing pediatric patients may directly reflects the overall status of pediatric care services in primary care settings. In China, there are great regional differences in the supply and demand of pediatric services, and the capabilities of primary care settings are unsatisfactory in providing pediatric services. The current encounters and influencing factors of GPs with pediatric patients in suburban districts are worthy of attention.

To understand the status and associated factors of clinical encounters of GPs with pediatric patients in a suburban district of Beijing, providing a reference for the development of tiered diagnosis and treatment of pediatric diseases.

In June 2021, purposive sampling was used to recruit GPs who participated in a training named "Beijing Miyun District Medical Consortium Construction & General Practitioners' Comprehensive Capability Improvement Project" to attend a semi-structured group interview for understanding the status of clinical encounters of GPs with pediatric patients and related influencing factors. The interview results were recorded, and transcribed, then coded using NVivo 12, and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Nineteen GPs (5 men and 14 women) in the age range of 24-51 years〔average age of (33.2±7.6) years〕, attended the interview, 18 of whom had a bachelor degree; 9 had a title of attending physician; 1 had participated in the standardized general practice residency program; 8 had participated in the "3+2" assistant general practitioners training program; 8 had participated in the standardized training before making a career change into general practice. The average years of them working a GP was 1-18 years〔 (6.3±4.8) years on average〕. Four themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Both the numbers of pediatric patients and illnesses encountered by suburban GPs were less than those encountered by their urban counterparts, and pediatric patients encountered by suburban GPs aged greater than or equal to 3 years. (2) Suburban GPs generally had a low level of self-confidence in treating pediatric patients. (3) The major factors negatively affected suburban GPs encountering pediatric patients include the pediatric patient's parents with a lower level of trust in their GP, inadequate capabilities of GPs in managing pediatric patients, high risk of managing pediatric patients, underperformance of nurses, inadequate available pediatric medicines and equipments for laboratory tests in the community, and lack of a clear referral system. (4) The major facilitators for suburban GPs to encounter pediatric patients include managing pediatric patients in the community by pediatricians, and increasing pediatric medicines and equipments for laboratory tests.

The encounters of suburban GPs with pediatric patients in primary care were unsatisfactory due to many problems and challenges. To improve the situation, it is suggested to improve the capabilities of suburban GPs in managing pediatric patients by trainings, the collaboration between GPs and pediatricians, and the tiered system for the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric diseases.