[The development of primary care related to regional governmental policies].

OBJECTIVES

To developed an evaluation of primary care (PC) from the analysis of the new differences in PC among the autonomous communities nowadays.

DESIGN

Cross ecological study.

SETTING

Spain.

PARTICIPANTS

The 17 autonomous communities.

MEASUREMENTS

Indicators of service supplies, diagnostic and therapeutic resolution habilities, access to hospital diagnostic, relationship and access doctor-patient, effectiveness and efficiency, public budget in PC and patient noticed quality.

RESULTS

In all the indicators, leftist regional Governments have obtained a better punctuation than conservative ones. The main differences are in relation to the percentage of overcrowded doctor quotas (more than 1500 inhabitants per family doctor, with a 27.4% of difference); in limited access to diagnostic proves from PC services (25.3%); in PC services supplies (17.1%) in infirmary staff per habitant (10.9%), in pharmacological waste increase (10.9%); in the PC expending per capita (10.3%) and in the percentage of people who think that PC has improved. By means of quarter weighting, the differences of punctuation obtained by the regions are from a maximum of 46 (Aragón) to a minimum of 26 (Canary Islands), with an average of 39.94%.

CONCLUSIONS

Six years after finishing the health transferences, there are important differences in the development of the PC, and the conservative autonomous communities have the deepest deficient one.