Menschliche und soziale Entwicklung
Health

Involved medical institutes
universities
medical staff / social workers
civil society (like NGOs, interest groups)
50’000 inhabitants of the affected regions, especially marginalized groups.

Health status in Hungary is clearly below EU average, especially in the North-East of the country. Children, the elderly and marginalized groups, including Roma, are particularly affected. While primary health care services have a strong curative focus, they pay little attention to marginalized populations, to prevention or to health promotion aspects. Moreover, data collection at the primary level is often patchy and appropriate software is not available which would help to analyse data necessary to manage health care efficiently.

Hungarian registration number: SH 8/1

The goal is to improve the health status of children, elderly and of marginalized groups in selected micro regions in North Hungary and the Northern Great Plains. For this purpose, a community oriented primary health care model focusing on prevention and chronic disease management is developed and field tested in close cooperation with local governments, local Roma minority self-governments, local health and social care services. Furthermore, recommendations for national health policy definition are elaborated for a country-wide replication of the model.

In disadvantaged areas of North-East Hungary, pilot practice teams (family doctors teaming up with health coordinator, dietician, physiotherapist, mental hygienist, Roma health guards, related disciplines) are set-up, giving special attention to prevention activities (e.g. mother and child care). Team members receive further training in primary care and family medicine education, provided by medical universities. A new system of primary care data reporting and processing is developed and introduced, facilitating research by a newly created health cluster. Based on research and pilot results, a health policy and health financing impact study is prepared as basis for a country-wide introduction of the model.

The expected results are:

• Widened scope and improved quality of primary care services in 24 selected general practitioner districts covering 50’000 people;
• Increased access to primary care services, e.g. at least 20 % increase in the participation in screenings;
• Trained team members of the 4 – 6 pilot general practitioner district clusters (additional training in primary care and family medicine);
• Developed and introduced primary care data reporting and processing system;
• Carried out accompanying research and evaluation of the pilot model and prepared health policy recommendations.