Cargando…

Barriers to the Utilization of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Iraq

Primary care has been viewed as a means to ensure equitable access to care, enhance efficiency within healthcare systems, and improve health service quality. In recent decades, Iraq has transformed its compromised health system, shifting the healthcare model from hospital-based to primary care throu...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Al Janabi, Taysir
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10123605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37092458
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/epidemiologia4020013
_version_ 1785029691311128576
author Al Janabi, Taysir
author_facet Al Janabi, Taysir
author_sort Al Janabi, Taysir
collection PubMed
description Primary care has been viewed as a means to ensure equitable access to care, enhance efficiency within healthcare systems, and improve health service quality. In recent decades, Iraq has transformed its compromised health system, shifting the healthcare model from hospital-based to primary care through primary health centers (PHCs) and referral mechanisms. Based on an extensive literature review, this qualitative paper explores the healthcare utilization of PHCs in different regions of Iraq. It also identifies some barriers to PHC use and recommends evidence-based approaches for improving PHCs’ performance. Some reported challenges to better utilizing PHCs were the poor quality of services, patient dissatisfaction, long walking distance to a health center, and limited availability and affordability of the medications. If Iraq is to use primary care as a tool in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), collaborative efforts addressing the facility-related factors should be a priority.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10123605
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-101236052023-04-25 Barriers to the Utilization of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Iraq Al Janabi, Taysir Epidemiologia (Basel) Article Primary care has been viewed as a means to ensure equitable access to care, enhance efficiency within healthcare systems, and improve health service quality. In recent decades, Iraq has transformed its compromised health system, shifting the healthcare model from hospital-based to primary care through primary health centers (PHCs) and referral mechanisms. Based on an extensive literature review, this qualitative paper explores the healthcare utilization of PHCs in different regions of Iraq. It also identifies some barriers to PHC use and recommends evidence-based approaches for improving PHCs’ performance. Some reported challenges to better utilizing PHCs were the poor quality of services, patient dissatisfaction, long walking distance to a health center, and limited availability and affordability of the medications. If Iraq is to use primary care as a tool in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), collaborative efforts addressing the facility-related factors should be a priority. MDPI 2023-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10123605/ /pubmed/37092458 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/epidemiologia4020013 Text en © 2023 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Al Janabi, Taysir
Barriers to the Utilization of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Iraq
title Barriers to the Utilization of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Iraq
title_full Barriers to the Utilization of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Iraq
title_fullStr Barriers to the Utilization of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Iraq
title_full_unstemmed Barriers to the Utilization of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Iraq
title_short Barriers to the Utilization of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in Iraq
title_sort barriers to the utilization of primary health centers (phcs) in iraq
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10123605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37092458
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/epidemiologia4020013
work_keys_str_mv AT aljanabitaysir barrierstotheutilizationofprimaryhealthcentersphcsiniraq