ACTA FAC. MED. NAISS. 2004; 21 (2): 95-99

       Original article 

    FAMILY DOCTORS IN VIEW OF HEALTH CARE SYSTEM REFORMS

    Slobodanka Bašić¹, Olivera Radulović¹, Čedomir Šagrić², Ana Tasić²

    ¹ Faculty of Medicine, Niš
    ² Health-care institute, Niš

     SUMMARY

    The most appropriate model of the organisation of family health care belongs to the primary health care protection together with the leading role of general practitioners (GPs). Such determination of the health care system is not accompanied by adequate solutions in practice. Thus, it represents one of the significant subjects of analysis and new strategies in the health care system of the Republic of Serbia. The aim of this paper is to analyse the status of GPs as family doctors and their attitude toward the forthcoming reforms in the area of family practice. Half of the staff, employed in the GP department and the department of house nursing in "Dom Zdravlja" in Niš (61 altogether), has been polled. The obtained answers are as follows: the most common beneficiaries are the elderly (63.9%); medical characteristics of beneficiaries are more familiar than their living conditions and the characteristics of their communities; the average number of checkups is above the current scale of norms for 58.5% of those polled; GPs get their the biggest satisfaction in connection with continuous contacts with determined patients (51%); suggested reforms in the area of family practice are only partly known (88%); 22% of doctors have got positive attitude toward financing family doctors according to the number of beneficiaries (patients); among the suggestions for better status of GPs material terms are in the first place. A statistically significant orientation has been found among the doctors with shorter working service toward treating elderly patients (c²=15.61, p <0.05). The conclusion is that in present conditions a GP is not sovereign in family health care according to the proclamations of WHO and the legal local solutions, which should be altered with adequate reforms in the health care system of the Republic of Serbia.

    Key words: family doctor, reforms, health care system