EFPC Survey – What is your take on Equity?

What is your take on Equity ? (very short) Questionnaire on the role of Public and Primary Healthcare in achieving equity.

Introduction. WHO and international organizations for healthcare and social care like EFPC and WFPHA have made striving for equity their key issues: how to achieve equity in health, in access and quality of healthcare. Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be healthy. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care. A strong Primary Care system, providing person-centered care, integrated with Public health and social care, is known to significantly improve populations’ health and reduce inequity. During COVID however, we sometimes faced the dilemma choosing between lives and equity, as the measures to prevent COVID infections affected worse the living circumstances as well as access to healthcare in people with low income or ow health literacy. These groups also suffered more from the infection: for instance in the Netherlands deaths due to Covid-19 infection were twice as high in the population with the lowest income compared to the highest income group. So, could we treat all our patients equally well in this challenging situation? What can we do in Public Health and Primary Care to achieve equity, also in these circumstances? What skills do professionals need, what conditions have to be met? How do local policies regarding organization of care and payments influence equity? Where should we put our resources? These questions we want to investigate with this on-line questionnaire and debate during an on-line World café on Equity during the Global Public Health week programme organized by WFPHA on April 6th We hope you will dedicate 10 minutes of your precious time to inform us about your take on equity.