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Position Statement on Primary Health Care

The Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists (CSRT) supports the Canadian Government’s efforts to renew health care through the enhancement of primary health care services.

Respiratory therapists are essential in the delivery of primary health care. As the concept of enhancing primary health care services, in order to improve the delivery of Canadian health care services becomes widely accepted, the CSRT would like to highlight the key role of respiratory therapists.

As stated on the National Primary Health Care Awareness Strategy website (www.primaryhealthcare.ca), primary healthcare is about:

• Preventing people from becoming ill or injured
• Managing chronic conditions
• Making the most effective use of health provider expertise
• Treating acute and episodic illness
• Efficiency and co-ordination
• Access
• Individuals playing an active role in their own health care
• Understanding that factors outside the health system influence individual and community health

Delivery of primary health care usually occurs at the first point of contact for patients seeking treatment. It does not include emergency room or hospital-based services.

Helping patient’s manage their asthma condition, providing support in smoking-cessation or treating sleep disorders in a community-based setting are a few examples of how respiratory therapists provide important primary health care services.

To ensure that the respiratory therapists’ perspective is taken into account as the shift toward promoting and enhancing primary health care occurs, the CSRT is now committed to collaborating with the Enhancing Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Primary Health Care (EICP) Initiative and has partnered with the National Primary Health Care Awareness Strategy campaign.

Enhancing Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Primary Health Care (EICP)

The EICP Initiative focuses on the creation of conditions for health professionals to work together in the most effective and efficient way to produce the best health outcomes for individuals and their families.

The EICP Initiative has identified six principles considered to be the values shared by stakeholders that are critical to establishing collaboration and teamwork to achieve the best health outcomes. The principals are as follows: patient/client engagement; population health approach; best possible care and services; access; trust and respect; and effective communication.

To sustain interdisciplinary collaboration in primary health care, the EICP Initiative has built a framework upon the stated principals. The framework is comprised of seven key elements: health human resources; funding; liability; regulation; information and communications technology; management and leadership; and planning and evaluation.

Detailed information regarding the EICP Initiative’s principals and framework is available on the EICP website at www.eicp-acis.ca.

The CSRT has collaborated with the EICP Initiative by participating in small group consultations, regional workshops, the Five Barrier/Enabling Task Force Groups and consultations with professional association’s membership activities.

The Society will continue to collaborate with the EICP Initiative by providing expertise in the creation of resources such as toolkits to help health care providers better serve patients within primary health care services.

National Primary Health Care Awareness Strategy

According to the National Primary Health Care Awareness Strategy campaign, a strong primary healthcare system is built on teams, information, access, and healthy living.

Teams: Primary health care emphasizes the importance of health care providers working in teams to meet the health needs of not only individuals, but also communities as a whole.
Information: Primary health care promotes improved sharing of information among health care providers, using tools such as electronic health records. It also encourages greater sharing of information with patients, in keeping with the team approach.

Access: Primary Health Care stresses providing greater access for more Canadians to health services on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week basis so more people can get advice, information and care outside of regular office hours.

Healthy Living: Healthy living focuses on keeping individuals healthy, not just treating them after they’ve become sick. It’s about managing chronic disease, preventing illness and injury, and encouraging self-care. It is also about health communities and a healthy environment, and understanding that many factors outside of the health system influence an individual’s wellbeing.

Additional information on the National Primary Health Care Strategy is available on the campaign’s website at www.primaryhealthcare.ca.

In partnering with the National Primary Health Care Strategy campaign, the CSRT has pledged to allow the campaign to utilize the Society’s information distribution networks to promote its recommendations.

The CSRT is committed to meeting its memberships’ professional needs. In order to fulfill this mandate, the Society’s participation in initiatives that aim at improving patient health outcomes is crucial. Providing tools and resources for respiratory therapists while ensuring that patients are allowed to benefit from respiratory therapists’ expertise will contribute to Canadian health care renewal.


References:
www.eicp-acis.ca
www.primaryhealthcare.ca

Approved by the CSRT Board of Directors, February, 2006