Investing in Primary Care: Can It Revolutionize Health

Primary care investment has always been accepted as a measure of enhancing the health of people. This premise is examined in a study that analyses 34 OECD countries for the fiscal years 2005 and 2015 in order to assess if there is an improvement in health system performance due to increased investment in primary care. It also investigates whether some aspects of primary care organization and delivery are linked with greater return on investment.

Investment in Primary Care

Average spending on primary care has also risen in the studied countries in the past years. This investment is measured by self-reported primary care expenditure and the number of generalist medical practitioners who represent the proxy to primary care services. Therefore, unlike many scholars arguing that higher investment in primary care should lead to better health, the study provides a more nuanced view.

Impact on Health System Efficiency

Therefore, the study suggests that the expansion of investment in primary care does not improve the health system performance and its capacity to deliver on complicated goals like the reduction of avoidable readmissions to hospitals. However, there was a slight improvement in the screening of breast and cervical cancer. This means that while capacity investment in primary care has some positive effects, it does not address other multifaceted health system challenges.

Role of General Practitioners

Another important observation made by the authors of the study is that increased participation in health promotion and preventive activities by GPs leads to better results in terms of screening at the same level of funding. This implies that the effect of increasing investment in primary care is moderated by the activities and awareness levels of GPs. The countries with GPs who actively interfere in screening and lifestyle advice are the ones that observe enhanced performance outcomes.

Implications for Policy

Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the results of the study indicate that the approach to financing primary care should not be limited to increasing spending. However, more emphasis should be laid on the institutional and funding arrangements that are in line with the objectives of specific policies. For instance, enhancing the participation of GPs in preventive services leads to better health status, and this can be achieved without funding primary care.

Despite the general agreement on how to enhance primary care, the authors suggest that the notion of primary care policy must have something that is relevant. This means that funding should be directed to the areas where the most can be done to improve the performance of the health systems. This kind of approach is necessary because health systems within different countries are complex and varied. Have a look at cowtownexpress.com to know more about it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is seen that increased funding for primary care has some positive impacts, especially in the aspect of cancer detection but does not necessarily cause improvement in the health care delivery. This is why the study emphasizes the importance of considering the organisational and operational context of the primary care. Application of resources for instance the part GPs played in preventive care is likely to increase the RIO in primary care. As for the subsequent primary care investment strategies, they should be well planned to meet the certain health policy objectives in order to achieve the desirable performance of the health systems.

It is thus relevant to consider the following types of investment in primary care. This study also reveals the need to look for other ways of improving health outcomes than focusing solely on the financial factor. They define it as the planning, the acquisition of resources and the concentration on the technical aspects of primary care delivery. It can aid in the direction of the outbound transportation of health services to the people’s needs, thus can aid in the development of a more efficient health system.