Xustiza e accesibilidade en Atención Primaria

Abstract

The aim of this project is to reflect on the difference between immediacy and accessibility to the healthcare system, to claim the principle of justice in healthcare and to propose solutions to this system of "immediate medicine" that is saturating primary care consultations, making them less accessible.

The confusion between immediacy and accessibility leads the population to use urgent ways to consult problems that could sometimes be solved by promoting patient's autonomy in managing banal health problems. While primary care system, PACs and hospital emergency rooms are saturated by this type of consultation, there are vulnerable sectors of the population that are not able to access the health system effectively. In this way, and in line with Tudor Hart's law, we see people with social problems, multipathology or difficulties in the family environment who receive less attention than they should receive. Therefore, we are creating a system that is less and less fair and managing resources in an inequitable way.

The responsibility lies both with the population (for misuse of resources), and with the administration (which promotes the misuse of public health through inappropriate policies and by inhibiting itself from educating the population in the responsible use of this valuable heritage).

Therefore, as public health professionals we must try to detect and minimize injustices in health care, as patients it is up to us to make responsible use of public health resources, and as citizens we must demand to the State and the administration that make our health system accessible and fair for everyone.