Do Primary Healthcare professionals agree on the Primary Care core values? Preliminary Data on a Delphi study.

Ileana Gefaell, Marina Guisado-Clavero, Raquel Gomez Bravo, Sara Ares Blanco, Alex Harding, Ana Cristina Franco Spinola, Ana Luisa Neves, Andrée Rochford, Eva Hummers, Nick Mamo, Radost Assenova, Veronica Rasic, Maria Pilar Astier-Peña, Eurodata Collaborative Group, Working Party On Policy Advocacy Wonca Europe Collaborative

Keywords: COVID-19, Policy advocacy, primary health care, public health

Background:

Health systems oriented towards Primary Health Care (PHC) are more efficient and equitable. Integrating PHC core values into the processes, infrastructures, and innovations of healthcare systems is crucial. Establishing a consensus on these core values is essential. This study aims to provide policymakers with a roadmap for effective resource allocation and the enhancement of PHC within European health systems

Research questions:

Do PHC professionals agree on the common core values of Primary Care and their integration in the health care processes, infrastructures and future Innovation of PHC system?

Method:

570 professionals related to PHC were invited to participate in an online Delphi questionnaire.
The panel included the PHC workforce, public health workers, and PHC managers.
The survey had 28 items, structured in 4 sections.
A Likert scale was used to evaluate the results in terms of relevance, feasibility and political priorities.
Data collection took place between May and June 2024.
The consensus was defined as 70% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing.

Results:

170 experts participated in the first Delphi round. Women: 130 (61.9%); mean age: 48 (SD: 12) years. The participants were from 39 countries, with the largest groups coming from Spain (27.1%), Italy (8.4%), Croatia (6.4%), Portugal (6.4%), and Turkey (5.9%). Most of the experts were family doctors (89.9%), and 56.2% worked in PHC centers. The panel fully agreed on the importance of all the statements of the roadmap. However, they only found it feasible for PHC to be accessible, manage complex patients, follow up on chronic conditions, and provide end-of-life support. The panel found that the current policies did not prioritize any of them.

Conclusions:

All the statements collected from literature are perceived as highly important. However, there was less consensus on feasibility.

Points for discussion:

What is your opinion about the need of having common PHC values and competences in Europe?

Why do healthcare workers believe the core values are unfeasible in their countries, and what steps could be taken to initiate meaningful changes?

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