Citation: Waheed, M. A., Al Mannai, L., Shareef, M., Akbar, S., Arooj, S., Shaik, A. R., Zafar, A., Mehmood, A., Siddique, M. S., Slieman, M., Mohammad, W. A., Saad, M. A., Al Majid, S. S., & Al Abdulla, S. A. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Primary Care Physicians' Work-Life Balance: Empirical evidence from Primary Healthcare Corporation (PHCC) Qatar. Sch J App Med Sci, 2022 Jan 10(1): 15-24. 15 Scholars Journal of Applied Medical Sciences Abbreviated Key Title: Sch J App Med Sci ISSN 2347-954X (Print) | ISSN 2320-6691 (Online) Journal homepage: https://saspublishers.com Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Primary Care Physicians' Work-Life Balance: Empirical Evidence from Primary Healthcare Corporation (PHCC) Qatar Dr. Muhammad Atif Waheed 1* , Dr. Lolwa Al Mannai 2 , Dr. Moqthair Shareef 1 , Dr. Sadaf Akbar 3 , Dr. Sana Arooj 5 , Dr. Ahmed Rashid Shaik 1 , Dr. Atif Zafar 1 , Dr Arshad Mehmood 1 , Dr. Muhammad Shahid Siddique 1 , Dr. Maxwell Slieman 3 , Dr. Wajahat Ali Mohammad 1 , Dr. Mohammed Ahmad Saad 4 , Dr. Shawqiya Salman Al Majid 6 , Dr. Samya Ahmad Al Abdulla 7 1 Consultant family medicine, PHCC, Qatar 2 Manager referral management office & call centre, PHCC, Qatar 3 Specialist family medicine, PHCC, Qatar 4 General Practitioner/Physician in charge of the health centre, PHCC, Qatar 5 Junior Doctor 6 Manager of the health centre, PHCC, Qatar 7 Executive Director of Operations, PHCC, Qatar DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2022.v010i01.003 | Received: 25.11.2021 | Accepted: 30.12.2021 | Published: 07.01.2022 *Corresponding author: Dr. Muhammad Atif Waheed Consultant family medicine, PHCC, Qatar Abstract Original Research Article The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant set of challenges for healthcare providers. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to determine the anxiety, depression, stress, and burnout levels of employees and to identify subfactors that directly impact physicians’ well-being. This is a cross-sectional online survey evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work-life balance, in particular, psychological distress on practising primary care physicians at Primary Healthcare Corporation, Qatar. We designed an online survey using the stress component of DASS-21, GAD-7, PHQ- 9, and the Stanford Professional Fulfilment Index (PFI). A total of 150 (21%), of which 58.7% were males and 47% were 25-44 years old, completed the questionnaire. Stress was reported by (26.7%), anxiety (32.7%), depression (45.3%), burnout (38.7%) and low professional fulfilment (80%). Stress and burnout were more prevalent among physicians aged < 44 years. Physicians who were concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on themselves reported higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression (p < .05). Physicians who expressed burnout were more likely to order the wrong medication (p = .046) and those with stress, anxiety, and depression were more likely to cause major medical errors (p < .05). The level of satisfaction with salary was associated with stress ( p = .047) and depression (p = .005). Telephone consultation dissatisfaction was significantly associated with stress ( p = .006), anxiety (p = .028), depression (p = .010) and burnout (p = .038). Gender, marital status, number of dependents, choice of the medical profession willingly or unwillingly, availability of PPE, and the rapidly changing COVID-19 guidelines were not associated with the variables. Stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, and low professional fulfilment were common among PHCC physicians. The PHCC has an excellent support system for primary care physicians. However, further effective communication strategies that are empathetic, not fear-based, and physician-centred, along with retraining of virtual consultation and provision of online interpreter services, are advised. Keywords: COVID-19, Physicians, Survey, Work-life balance, psychological distress. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s): This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use provided the original author and source are credited. INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic has jeopardised human lives worldwide. At the time of writing this article, April 21, 2021, 16:03 GMT +3 hours, confirmed cases of COVID-19 were 142,238,073, and mortality was 3,032,124 ("WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard", 2021). Healthcare workers during the current COVID-19 pandemic and in previous pandemics, such as the 2003 SARS outbreak, have Family Medicine