[Can the crowd pressure on primary health services be managed?]. / Se puede gestionar la presión asistencial en los servicios de atención primaria?

ABSTRACT

The crowd pressure which is placed on Primary Care Services frequently overwhelms the capacity of response of said services. In certain cases the crowd pressure coincides with low demand per inhabitant and year (as compared with the expected average in our environment), while on other occasions there coexist high crowd pressures with high frequencies. The automatic assumption that excess crowding--larger need for human resources obviates the analysis of the organizational factors and of individuals who contribute to the crowding increase. Sometimes, assigning more resources to cope with excess crowding of unidentified origins contributes towards keeping those causes alive, rather than solving them. We propose a method of analysis of excess care demand based on the answer to a short series of questions, while at the same time proposing certain management measures which could be useful to cope with excess demand, depending on the cause or causes which have been found to apply.