Challenges, progress, opportunities: European and Central Asian health systems

New WHO studies look at health systems across 14 countries in Europe and Central Asia to reveal how to better invest in the health of millions Allowing policy-makers the chance to compare and collaborate, recent studies from the World Health Organization present countries’ health systems at a glance.

Many citizens in the WHO European Region are fortunate to live in countries where the health system can look after them when they fall ill. But sadly, for millions of others, falling ill means having to choose between paying for medical treatment and paying for food, education and other necessities.

In some ...

General practitioners' perceptions of distributed leadership in providing integrated care for elderly chronic multi-morbid patients: a qualitative study

Distributed Leadership (DL) has been suggested as being helpful when different health care professionals and patients need to work together across professional and organizational boundaries to provide integrated care (IC). This study explores whether General Practitioners (GPs) adopt leadership actions that transcend organizational boundaries to provide IC for patients and discusses whether the GPs’ leadership actions in collaboration with patients and health care professionals contribute to DL.

Transformations in the landscape of primary health care during COVID-19: Themes from the European region

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted primary health care (PHC) across Europe. Since March 2020, the COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor (HSRM) has documented country-level responses using a structured template distributed to country experts. We extracted all PHC-relevant data from the HSRM and iteratively developed an analysis framework examining the models of PHC delivery employed by PHC providers in response to the pandemic, as well as the government enablers supporting these models. Despite the heterogenous PHC structures and capacities across European countries, we identified three prevalent models of PHC delivery employed: (1) multi-disciplinary primary care teams coordinating with public health ...

The principles of person-centredness in quality patient care-Evaluation of the Community Pharmacy Services Quality Guidelines in Estonia

Person-centredness is considered a key component of quality healthcare and the core competence of all healthcare professionals. However, person-centred care (PCC) is not often considered a priority for improving the quality of healthcare. This study aimed to evaluate to what extent the PCC principles are included in the Community Pharmacy Services Quality Guidelines (CPSQG) in Estonia.

Importance of work engagement in primary healthcare

Work engagement is crucial for quality care at the primary healthcare level. This is especially true during the Covid-19 pandemic, as it has effects on the community from both a health and economic point of view. For example, inadequate work engagement can lead to fewer referrals to the secondary healthcare level. This study aims to examine the work engagement level in a public healthcare organisation at the primary healthcare level to further explore the role of work environment characteristics. The study addresses a research gap in the field of primary healthcare and emphasises the importance of managing the factors promoting ...

Resilience of the primary health care system – German primary care practitioners’ perspectives during the early COVID-19 pandemic

Primary care is a relevant pillar in managing not only individual, but also societal medical crises. The COVID-19 pandemic has demanded a rapid response from primary care with interventions in the health care system. The aim of this paper was to explore the responses of primary care practitioners (PCP) during the early COVID-19 pandemic and to analyze these with a view on the resilience of the primary health care system from the PCPs perspective.

Values Underpinning Integrated, People-Centred Health Services: Similarities and Differences among Actor Groups Across Europe

In addition to the functional aspects of healthcare integration, an understanding of its normative aspects is needed. This study explores the importance of values underpinning integrated, people-centred health services, and examines similarities and differences among the values prioritised by actors across Europe.

Priority setting and cross-country learning: the relevance of TO-REACH for primary care

To inform the primary care community about priorities for research in primary care as came up from the European project TO-REACH and to discuss transferability of service and policy innovations between countries. The large variation in service organisation and policy around primary care in Europe is a huge potential for cross-country learning. 

TO-REACH stands for Transfer of Organizational innovations for Resilient, Effective, equitable, Accessible, sustainable and Comprehensive Health services and systems.

In safe hands: a qualitative study on older adults’ experiences of a tailored primary health care unit

Today’s health care system faces challenges in meeting the needs of older people with multimorbidity. To better cope with these needs, tailored primary health care with geriatric competence and person-centred care has been suggested. The aim of this study was to explore older patients’ experiences of a tailored primary health care unit.

District nurses' perspectives on health-promotive and disease-preventive work at primary health care centres: A qualitative study

Health promotion and disease prevention are of utmost importance for sustainable health care and primary health care. District nurses play a key role in primary health care centres, where they meet people suffering from, and/or having risk factors for, non-communicable diseases.

he district nurses described health-promotive endeavours, in line with person-centred care in prioritising building relationships with patients, starting from their lived experience. They spoke of barriers, at both micro and macro levels, to health-promotive/disease-preventive work. These included language barriers, the impact of the media, and the overall organisation of primary health care.