Realising the Potential of Primary Health Care
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The rapid spread of COVID-19 added urgency to the need to address long-standing pressures on health systems, linked to growing citizens’ expectations, population ageing and more complex and costly health care needs. As the first point of contact, primary health care that provides comprehensive, continuous, and co-ordinated care is key to boosting preventive care, treating those who need care, and helping people become more active in managing their own health. It has the potential to improve health system efficiency and health outcomes for people across socio-economic levels, and make health systems people-centred. This report examines primary health care across OECD countries before the COVID-19 pandemic, and draws attention to how primary health care is not living up to its full potential. Doing things differently – through new models of organising services, better co-ordination among providers, better use of digital technology, and better use of resources and incentives – helps to improve care, reduce the need for hospitalisations, and mitigate health inequalities. This report identifies key policy challenges that OECD countries need to address to realise the full potential of primary health care, and reviews progress and innovations towards transforming primary health care.
Less inequalities and more inclusive societies
This chapter builds on available evidence to present a comprehensive set of policy actions to reduce social health inequalities and promote more inclusive societies by leveraging primary health care. The first section of the chapter presents the evidence base associating strong primary health care and lower social health inequalities. This is followed by an assessment of the many financial, structural, and personal barriers impeding access to primary health care across OECD countries, which can result in or exacerbate social health inequalities. Section presents several policy actions on both demand and supply sides to tackle social health inequalities. Special emphasis is devoted to organisation changes in primary health care necessary to bring care closer to people and communities that are typically underserved, and to enable patients to make the best of their health by addressing social and economic barriers to care.
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