Measuring the true value of primary care

Dr Tim olde Hartman and primary care colleagues from around the globe discuss the value of primary care alongside the challenges of monitoring and measuring comprehensive primary care performance within health systems.

They highlight current limitations which seek to quantify primary care contribution based on disease specific indicators, rather than considering the full breadth of services. They argue that without the use of robust measures to comprehensively capture primary care performance, there is a bias towards individual disease-focused secondary care. They suggest that this does not reflect quality of care in an increasing complex and multimorbid population. Listen the authors discuss their article in this brief audio abstract. 

Special issue: Race and Racism in Primary Care

Special issue: COVID-19 and Primary Care

How is the COVID-19 pandemic influencing the ability of international health systems to deliver high quality primary care? Read Guest Editor Dr Luke Allen’s introduction to this special issue, which includes managing the pandemic in rural Africa, the response from six well-resourced countries, and the relationship between perceived ‘strong’ primary care and COVID-19 mortality.