Primary Care and emergency Medicine provide the necessary safety for patients and the whole society at large. Primary care is considered the backbone fee the health care of any country. The use of primary care results in implementing preventive medicine, vaccination, primary and secondary prevention and also to control the finances. The primary care drives the wholesome care that is needed by the individuals of the society. A better primary care determines the better and healthy society.
The other safety aspect of healthcare is dealing with the unexpected and the safety net for all people when other access to healthcare is not available like busy times or semi urgency. The burden of these patients is also enormous especially on the public hospital emergency departments. These busy emergency departments at one hand prove to be the last refuge for all the people yet these places pose a clinical risk to all those patients who come to get help.
Evidence shows that developing primary care along side emergency departments result is creating a safer system for the patients. The idea is that the emergency departments should work with the primary care as one team and provide the patients the level of care that they require. We know that every set up requires unique resources and that these resources when overwhelmed create unsafe situations for the patients and the nurses and doctors. Excessive burden on the emergency lead to situations where either the right care is delayed, or the staff gets over-burdened with resultant chances of mistake. A teamwork of emergency and primary care can result in appropriate care with shared and well distributed distribution of the patient’s load.
Pakistan need to start developing this safety net and distribution of the workload especially in the public sector hospitals. Right from the triage the low acuity or less serious patients should be entertained at less acute setting a bit away from the main emergency department. This approach will result in less crowded emergency departments and resultant better care for the sickest. It also will proved to be financially more cost effective and will also lower the risk of mistakes on the part of working staff in the emergency department.
I hope we see one day this plan implemented in its entirety so our nation gets the fruits of efficiency as well as safety in the hands of all those who provide the emergency as well as primary care to all the citizen.