Final Conference of the European Project: “Adaptation of primary care to the current needs of the Spanish population”

The Commission supported the Directorate-General for Public Health of the Ministry of Health in carrying out the project ‘Adapting primary care to the current needs of the Spanish population’, the objective of which was to develop specific recommendations on criteria, governance models and requirements that promote equity in access to high-quality primary care services. The project, funded by the European Union through the Technical Support Instrument, has been implemented in collaboration with the European Commission’s Reform and Investment Task Force (SG REFORM).

This 20-months project was carried out through a participatory consensus process involving all autonomous communities and cities and a consultative process was carried out with professional societies and patient associations. It also involved experts and an Advisory Committee. The methodology used included individual interviews, Delphi questionnaires, presentation and discussion meetings and online surveys.

The work carried out resulted in the following results:

• Detailed analysis of the current situation of primary care in each of the Autonomous Communities and Cities in the following areas: 1) planning; 2) organisation and management; 3) human resources; 4) funding and 5) Infrastructure and equipment.
• Case studies of reforms carried out in primary care in other countries.
• Recommendations to adapt primary care to the needs of the population in each area of analysis.
• Detailed operational plan to implement the recommendations, with tools to facilitate their implementation.

The results of the project will be presented at the Final Conference at the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid on 19 April. The main objective of the event is to present the results obtained at each stage of the project, accompanied by a space for reflection and debate on the medium- and long-term challenges and barriers to its implementation and adaptation to the different regional realities of the National Health System.

Pilar Aparicio, Director-General for Public Health at the Ministry of Health alongside Raluca Painter, Director for Employment, Education, Health and Social Services, SG REFORM, will open the conference. There will be two round tables:

• The first round table “Present and Future Project Implementation Challenges” is primarily aimed at discussing the challenges identified during the project, addressing them from a technical perspective and involving project field experts.
• The second round table “Adapting the Operational Plan to the different regional realities: assessing barriers and seeking measures/initiatives to mitigate them”, representatives of the Autonomous Communities will address the challenges at practical level relating to their specific reality.

Finally, the priorities for advancing primary care from European Commission’s perspective will be considered and the event will conclude with the presentation of conclusions as an institutional closure by Yolanda Agra, Subdirectorate-General for Quality of Care of the Ministry of Health.