Access to and continuity of primary medical care of different providers as perceived by the Finnish population

Time is on my side, yes it is

“…Continuity of care is probably the most important part of quality primary care and can still be improved [2], and we all agree that too much fragmentation should be avoided [3]. Family physicians are also supposed to guide patients through the ever more complicated system of healthcare but have never truly served as gatekeepers since there has always been relatively open access to subspecialists in Iceland.…”

Factors that affect first contact access in the primary health care: integrative review

“…Presence of ESF [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Home assistance 14,17 Hosting or responsiveness 10,14,16,[18][19][20][21][22][23] Opening hours 10,15,18,21,[23][24][25][26] Balance between fulfilling spontaneous demand and scheduled [10][11]16 Telephone contact offer 24,27 Nurse on the place 24,28 Unfavorable Transportation difficulties 11,13,18,23,[25][26][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] Geographic location 10,11,18,23,…”

“…19 Relationships among patients, caregivers and professionals also enable access to the service. 14,20 A hostile reception can cause significant access problems. 21 It is noteworthy that the service organization through the hosting results in the classification of the responsiveness and scheduling appointments.…”

“…23 Access to APS was better realized if compared to those using other services. 20 Insurance interruptions affect patients access to the system. This fact was pointed out in studies in the United States, usually in losing or changing jobs and changing insurance.…”

A new healthcare act in process in Finland

“…This is the most welcome principle given that public health centres have faced multiple problems such as a shortage of physicians [3] and suboptimal continuity of care [4] during past years. However, here the content of the law proposal was disappointing.…”