[Ten years after "privatization" in primary health care]

Acta Med Croatica. 2007 Feb;61(1):1-6.
[Article in Croatian]

Abstract

Ten years after the privatization in primary health care its disadvantages have been noticed making it less quality and consequently increasing the costs of total health care of the patient. Current organization makes family practitioners inaccessible to the patient during a part of the day. Emergency health care and hospital emergency services are ever more burdened with the work that should be done by family practitioners, thus becoming hardly accessible in emergencies. Medical nurses are mostly occupied with administrative work, family practitioners are partly doing the work that should be done by nurses, while clinical specialists are doing the job of family practitioners. They all work a lot but they do the jobs that should not be in their domain and that are much under the level of their education. Health care becomes ineffective, below-quality and expensive. It is necessary to redefine the tasks of all health care participants starting from family practitioners, and to redefine the role of medical center. Solving the legal position of family practitioners working in "lease", introduction of the combined form of payment in family practice, and the possibility of interacting association of physicians could help eliminate the problems and promote the quality of health care.

Publication types

  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Croatia
  • Emergency Medical Services
  • Family Practice
  • Health Care Costs
  • Health Services Accessibility*
  • Humans
  • Primary Health Care* / economics
  • Primary Health Care* / organization & administration
  • Privatization*
  • Quality of Health Care*