Improving primary health care systems
Overall, the EU-funded project 'Quality and costs of primary care in Europe' (QUALICOPC) aimed to assess primary care in Europe based on quality, equity and costs. Work began by preparing for Europe-wide data collection from general practitioners (GPs) and their patients; developing measuring instruments; detailing fieldwork strategy; recruiting national fieldwork coordinators; and monitoring fieldwork implementation in each country. Project members continued with further recruitment of GPs and patients, data entry, checking of data quality, and planning and preparing data analyses. Data was anonymously collected through surveys of GPs and patients. The surveys mainly involved questionnaires about patients' experiences with primary care, and the importance they attach to these specific experiences with the GPs. Results provided insight into the professional practices of GPs and the quality of care as perceived by patients. To collect data from participating countries, an extensive network of primary care researchers was set up. A national coordinator was appointed in each country for this purpose. Good practice scenarios were identified and disseminated to the research community, policymakers and various health sector stakeholders. Data was gathered from 31 European countries, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. By the end of the project, the database contained more than 6 800 GPs and 65 000 patients. QUALICOPC endeavoured to answer the question of what makes a strong primary care system. In doing so, it should advance the state of the art in primary care research and contribute to dialogue on the importance of enhancing primary care systems.
Keywords
Health care, primary care, general practitioners, patients
