Last year, 75 million doctor-patient encounters took place in primary care, and this number is constantly rising. However, the system is extremely wasteful and hospital-centric, so reorganization is unavoidable, says Szabolcs Békássy, the national collegiate professional family physician, to Mandiner. According to him, family doctors should be given more powers and district boundaries should also be revised.
Reorganization would be very important, says Békássy, since primary care is the segment of the health care system where the largest number of doctor-patient encounters take place every year: last year, this number reached 75 million. It is also essential to organize primary care well, because this sector is where services close to the place of residence can be provided for patients, and these represent the most appropriate care in terms of both cost-effectiveness and accessibility, both in terms of preserving the health of patients and curing their illnesses. In primary care, it is necessary to try to provide patients with definitive care, i.e. care that provides a local solution to the patient's recovery and care for their chronic diseases and not referring them to another institution.
All of this would not automatically result in an additional task for family doctors - currently, due to the limits of competence, the organization of various patient journeys is a more time-consuming and much more challenging task - but at the same time, it could immediately reduce the efficiency of care and the burden on outpatient and inpatient institutions.
The Hungarian healthcare system is currently hospital-centric, which causes many problems.
As an example, I would mention the care of patients with type 2 diabetes, which, in accordance with European practice, could be fully implemented at the level of primary health care. All of this would mean clear advantages not only for patients, but also for family doctors, a more comfortable medical work, and would also mean a more cost-effective solution for the care system. Our efforts to strengthen primary care are otherwise in harmony with the ideas of the sector management, so we hope that in the near future, changes that will be felt by patients will benefit their health.
Redesigning not only primary care, but also the on-call care system is an extremely important task. It is essential that this level is also well organized.
It is very important to cooperate with the National Ambulance Service in the planning and coordination of patient journeys. Currently, local governments have the authority to designate duty district boundaries, these district boundaries need to be reviewed, in many cases they are not optimally organized according to plant size.
Source and full interview: Mandiner
Featured image: msn.hu
