Experiences of primary health care in Latin America and the Caribbean

The role of primary health care (PHC) stands out as the key to achieving these objectives in an integrated manner.

In the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, most countries seek to reform their health systems to achieve universal coverage and improve the efficiency of their health expenditures, while meeting the growing expectations of citizens about the quality of care.

The role of primary health care (PHC) stands out as the key to achieving these objectives in an integrated manner. For this reason, the Inter-American Development Bank carried out, between 2012 and 2014, the Survey on Access, Experience and Coordination of Primary Health Care in Latin America and the Caribbean published on IDB titled 'From the patient: Experiences of primary health care in Latin America and the Caribbean', in adult populations of Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, Panama and Jamaica, seeking to contribute to the design of public health policies, and especially considering the point of view of patients.

The first two chapters of this book present the context and challenges of health systems in the region and describe the conceptual framework and methodology of the study. Chapters three through eight deal, separately, with each of the six countries, studied, with results on the experiences of patients with primary health care and their integration with other levels of care.

Chapter nine closes the book with a comparative analysis between the six countries of LAC and extends the comparison to 11 high-income OECD countries, where there are persistent gaps in the indicators of access, experience and coordination in PHC among the countries of LAC and those of the OECD.