Primary care for all: lessons for Canada from peer countries with high primary care attachment
www.cmaj.ca
KEY POINTS Health systems with strong primary care have better outcomes, lower costs and better equity.[1][1] Yet, even at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 17% of people in Canada reported not having a regular primary care clinician.[2][2] At the same time, Canada is seeing declining

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/10617328

An analysis on primary care in Canada, and what we can do to improve it

KEY POINTS

  • Canada spends less of its total health budget on primary care than the average among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries (5.3% v. 8.1%).

  • Canada can learn lessons to inform policy on primary care from OECD countries like the United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands and Finland where more than 95% of the population has a regular primary care clinician or place of care.

  • An analysis of these countries shows that those with high rates of primary care attachment have stronger contractual agreements and accountability for family physicians, including where they practise, their scope of practice and who they accept as patients.

  • Countries with high rates of primary care attachment have similar numbers of family physicians, but fewer work in walk-in clinics or specialized areas; family physicians are paid by capitation or salary, work in interprofessional teams and have excellent digital tools and information systems.

The article has more, I just pulled the key points section out