Barriers facing family physician in primary health care when dealing with emergency cases in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The scarcity of emergency cases presented to the primary health care centers (PHCCs) makes treating such cases by family physicians more difficult To identify the barriers facing family physicians in PHCCs when facing emergency cases in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional descriptive design was deployed in the study among a sample of family physicians. A reliable and valid self-reported questionnaire was used. In addition, an observational sheet was used to investigate the preparedness of PHCCs to deal with emergency situations. The study included 162 PHC physicians. Almost two-thirds of them (65.4%) aged 25–34 years, and 52.5% were females. Middle-aged (25––35 years) physicians (P = 0.030), females (P < 0.001), Saudis (P = 0.027), those attended advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) since more than 2 years (P = 0.029), those who had no exposure in working in emergency units (P = 0.029), and less experienced physicians (<1 year) (P = 0.010) showed lower “perceived level of competence in performing emergency skills.” The commonest barrier facing physicians during the management of emergency cases in thePHC was lack of appropriate equipment (76.5%), followed by lack of exposure to emergency cases (62.3%) and lack of time (50.6%). Dealing with emergency cases is considered part of the medical practice in PHCCs. For primary care physicians, the level of training in emergency medicine courses is suboptimal particularly advanced trauma life support (ATLS) courses in Riyadh. Inregards to emergency services at the PHC level in Riyadh, most of the items were available; however, defects were reported in some. Knowing the barriers facing doctors during dealing with emergency cases helps in improving and providing integrated medical care.