Organization of urban Primary Health Care, incorporating specialists in training

Abstract

The main objective of the “National Training Program for Specialists assigned to urban Primary Health Care Centres” is to contribute towards the improvement of the quality and problem solving effectiveness of care, with equity and for the great majority of the population. In order to achieve this, the specialists in training must be integrated, during their primary care stages, into the structure and functions of each Primary Health Center. As an input for this process, and on the basis of the existing experience, this paper presents a detailed definition of the groups of tasks that they should perform and of the time alloted to each of them. This is specified for each speciality and for each training stage. It is important to maintain the cohesion of the teams of four specialities (Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics an Gynecology, and Psychiatry) connected to a given territory and population, as well as to comply with the fundamental requisite that they contribute to the Health Center as a whole. This they should do by acting as an internal referral level and as a training resource for the other professionals; and by strengthening the health promotion and protection functions at the family and community levels. In turn, the Centres shoud strive to reach and maintain the resources and functioning levels indicated in the norms of the Ministry of Health.