Primary health care in the developing part of Europe Changes and development in the former Eastern block countries that joined the European Union following 2004

1
Primary health care in the developing part of
EuropeChanges and development in the former
Eastern block countries that joined the European
Union following 2004

• Imre RURIK
  László KALABAY

• Department of Family and Occupational Medicine
  Department of Family Medicine
• 
  Faculty of Public Health Faculty of
  Medicine
• Medical and Health
  Science Center Semmelweis University
• 
  University of Debrecen Budapest
• Hungary
• The Future of Primary
  Care in Europe III.
• 30-31 August, 2010
• Pisa
• 
  

2
The Declaration of Alma Ata

• Health for all by the year of 2000.
• ambitious vision of the Alma Ata Declaration
  (AAD) 1978
• WHO promoted the orientation toward primary
  health care
• Coherence between
• Primary, secondary and tertiary care,
• Curative and preventive services,
• Somatic and mental health care
• are more difficult to maintain.
• Rurik I, Kalabay L. Primary health care in the
  developing part of Europe. Med Sci Monit
  200915(7) PH 78-84.

3
Transition

• from a system of hospital services
• medical specialisation toward a GP/ FM (General
  Practice/Family Medicine) - based health care
  system
• to implementing cost-effectiveness and
  prevention.
• strong primary care is associated with
• reduced risks of hospitalisation,
• shorter length of stay in hospital and
  decreased costs
• sharp divide in life expectancy between Western
  Europe and the former socialist countries of C
  E Europe
• this gap largely developed in the past two or
  three decades
• high rate of tobacco and alcohol consumption,
• poor nutrition and increasing social inequalities

4
Health sytem history until the end of 1980s

• Strongly influenced by the policy and the economy
  of the Soviet Union
• Health care was a public responsibility
• Organization, management and delivery of care
  were undertaken by state authorities
• All inhabitants were entitled to have access to
  health care free of charge
• Health care was financed from general taxation by
  the state
• Patients had easy or even unlimited access to
  most outpatient clinical specialists.
• Finances were regulated by central and regional
  state administration
• Health care was delivered by public service
  providers
• Informal payment (tipping) was widespread to
  obtain better access or higher quality services
• Excessive prescription of pharmaceuticals,
  multiple referrals, overcrowding in hospitals,
  and increasing costs

5
Primary care history until the end of 1980s

• General practice had long tradition before the
  World War II, was almost completely abolished
• Patients were allocated to local or regional
  providers according to their place of residence
• GPs were employed by polyclinics / health centres
  or local municipalities in rural areas
• District physicians referred a large proportion
  of them to specialists or hospitals utilising a
  high number of hospital beds
• Low quality of care, low patients satisfactions,
  rising costs, and medical staff dissatisfied with
  working condition and salaries

6
Health care reforms from the 1990s

• Collapse of communism in most Eastern countries
• Emphasis was on the development of
  insurance-based financing, decentralization of
  the organization of health care
• Re-introduction of family medicine as a new
  specialty
• PHC reforms toward the GP / FM model
• Collaboration with WONCA
• European Academy of Teachers in General
  Practice (EURACT),
• European Working Party on Quality in
  Family Practice (EQiP)
• European General Practice Research Workshop,
• later Network (EGPRN)

7
Primary care reforms

• Courses for future trainers of new family doctors
  were organized
• Specific training in family medicine was
  introduced
• CME courses, a quite new terminology in these
  counties.
• Residency-based programmes were established
• Family medicine was recognized as an academic
  discipline
• Nearly all university medical schools have
  departments of family medicine
• Professional organisations colleges, scientific
  associations were established.
• Quality improvement systems were introduced
• Guidelines were issued

8
Methods statistics

• Demographic, socio-economic mortality-based data
  on health care resources, health care utilization
  and expenditures were analysed
• Economic although GDP (Gross Domestic Products)
  is used more widely, Gross National Product (GNP)
  was chosen reflecting better the economic and
  historical trends
• Second economic indicator
• Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) usually lower
  salaries and prices http//www.euro.who.int/hfad
  b

9
Methods Literature search

• Scientific publications from peer reviewed,
  indexed journals, where PC / FM and the name of
  the respective country were both found among
  keywords or PubMed MeSH terms.
• Personal experience
• Short and easy to manage questionnaire for
  personal experiences of FPs were asked.
• They are all
• - practising GPs, many of them in academic job
  (EGPRN)
• - well informed and active contributors of other
  international scientific PC organisations, within
  the respective countries
• English language questionnaire was constructed,
  to avoid linguistic errors during translation.

10
Questions

• Are there in your country Department(s) of Family
  Medicine?
• Is it an opportunity in your country to be
  qualified in FM?
• Are there in your country compulsory CME courses
  for GPs?
• Have the GPs a real gate-keeper function in your
  health system?
• Are your personal living conditions better than
  15y before?

11
Results statistical facts 1. Unemployment
rate 1980 - 2005
12
2. Gross National Product (GNP) and Purchasing
Power Parities (PPP) 1980 - 2005
13
3. Health care resources data (number of
hospital beds, general practitioners and nurses
per 100,000 inhabitants), 1980 - 2005
14
4. Data on health care utilisation and
expenditure in the first and last available years
15
5. Life expectancy at birth (in years) 1980 -
2005
16
Personal experiences of GPs

• The answers of the questionnaire were similar.
• PC as an academic discipline with opportunity of
  qualification is accepted in all countries, but
  till now, no university departments were
  established in Romania and Lithuania.
• CME courses are available in each country, but
  they are not compulsory for GPs in Estonia.
• FPs rated in the questionnaire the gate keeping
  system of their own countries good only in
  Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovenia, whereas just
  symbolic or theoretical in other health systems.
• Overworking of GPs was also mentioned in Estonia,
  Hungary, Lithuania and Slovenia among the answers
  of the questionnaire. The living circumstances of
  GPs and that of general population were rated
  better, than was 15 years before.

17
Discussion Human resources, education

• Physician workforce that was often too large,
  dominated by specialists
• Rapidly prepare physicians for PHC, retraining of
  existing physicians for the short-term,
  establishment of training programs, to train
  recently graduated FP / GPs doctors
• In Romania, Baltic states a limited number of
  trained GPs
• Shortage of educated nurses remained
  characteristic
• There is a negative perception of family medicine
  among Polish students and doctors because of its
  long work hours, insufficient diagnostic
  possibilities and monotony and less time for
  family, FM is chosen because of lack of other
  possibilities, difficulties in employment and
  opportunity to become 'a specialist' in short
  time

18
Discussion Socio-economic, financial changes

• Eastern governments were unable to spend more
  money for health care because of economical
  recession in the 90-ies,
• after 2000 a minimal increase
• Structural reforms in PHC, started only in the
  second half of the 30 years that had passed away
  since AAD. Almost nothing happened in the Eastern
  block in the 1980s during the so called
  stagnation in the Breshnew era
• Nowadays, state (Beveridge) health system model
  and
• one-insurance fund (Bismarck) governmental
  ruled) are existing in most of these countries,
  based on the model
• The Czech Republic and Slovakia are exception,
  where more insurance companies were established
  with private investment.

19
Discussion Structural changes in health care

• Lack of integration of health services
• Minimal structural changes
• The old style of polyclinics still predominates
  in Romania, Bulgaria, and Estonia,Primary health
  care centres had been a characteristic in the
  former Yugoslavian health care system (Slovenia)
• Monopoly position of the one Insurance Fund,
  preserving their public health functions,
  increasing efficiency and establishing clearly
  defined relations with private providers are the
  challenges of the future
• Lack of financial interest of GPs
• In most countries patients still have a free
  access to specialists without referral

20
Discussion Changes in morbidity mortality and
populations expectancy

• Life expectancies increased, mortality decreased,
  higher percent of illnesses were discovered in
  earlier stage with screening, whereas the
  incidence of preventable diseases decreased
  minimally in each country
• There is no single explanation for the health gap
  between countries
• Contributing factorsincreasing prevalence of
  major risk factors in lifestyle and environment,
  the low efficiency and effectiveness of health
  care systems
• Reorientation towards a primary care system
  emphasises health promotion and preventive
  services
• Most of the population has not recognised the
  importance of healthy life style, expectation of
  people to improve their health comes from the
  health staff
• No state-financed health-maintaining programs
• No governmental support for changing unhealthy
  life style.
• Patients who had had a contact with their family
  doctor were satisfied with his work
• Increasing likelihood of survival from acute
  manifestations of illness, as populations age,
  and as costs of care increase with increasing
  availability of technologic interventions.

21
Discussion Governmental initiatives

• Obviously, less effort in the Eastern than in the
  Western Europe has been made to follow the
  suggestions of the AAD to modify the health
  structures.
• Although there are differences between countries,
  it is general that the implementation of family
  medicine as part of health care reform is not an
  absolute priority for decision makers
• It is rather a tool for more effective use of
  resources and not to increase the quality of care
  
• Unstable political situation and frequent change
  of decision makers create a long series of
  problems

22
Conclusions

• similar key areas of concern
• HR problems there is still a struggle to have a
  physician workforce with the
• right numbers, the right specialty mix, and
  practicing in the right locations, lack of
  trained nurses
• atomisation of practices, there is no teamwork in
  PC, praxis communities, group practices
  practically do not exist
• lack of academic infrastructures and
• unsatisfactory continuous professional
  development
• the reform was introduced through the creation of
  a new funding system for primary care services,
  without significant increasing of financing,
  unsatisfactory payment system,
• GPs became self-employed because of more rational
  use of economical budgeting
• health care reform rarely evaluated
  systematically
• Health for all by 2000. these countries, had
  short time and few resources to change their
  health system, most of them are still in the
  midst of transition.

23

24
Rurik I, Kalabay L. Primary health care in the
developing part of Europe. Med Sci Monit
200915(7) PH 78-84.
Rurik I, Kalabay L. Primary health care
in the developing part of Europe. Med Sci
Monit 200915(7) PH 78-84.