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Framework for development of urgent care services towards strengthening primary healthcare in India – Joint position paper by the Academy of Family Physician of India and the Academic College of Emergency Experts
Pritam Roy1, Raman Kumar2, Praveen Aggarwal3, Rajeshwari S Vhora4, Manish Gupta5, Vandana Boobna6, Ramkumar Gupta7, Sukrit Kumar8
1 Primary Care and Public Health Policy Forum, Academy of Family Physicians of India, New Delhi, India
2 President Academy of Family Physicians of India, New Delhi, India
3 Department of Emergency Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
4 Department of Accident and Emergency, Jehangir Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India
5 Senior Family Physicians, Green Park Family Clinic, New Delhi, India
6 Consultant Family Medicine, Max Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi, India
7 Senior Member, Academy of Family Physicians of India, New Delhi, India
8 Family Physicians, New Delhi, India
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Raman Kumar
049 Crema Tower, Mahagun Mascot, Crossing Republik, Ghaziabad - 202 016, Uttar Pradesh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_286_20
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Urgent care practice (UCP) is a novel concept for India. Urgent care primarily deals with injuries or illnesses requiring immediate care. Medical emergency and urgency can happen anywhere unannounced. Research has shown that 90% of the morbidities can be resolved within the community by primary care physicians lead teams. Given the changing professional demands, non-specialists tend to refer away far too many cases to specialists, undermining generalist medical care, particularly in Indian settings. The spillover of the patient load from the primary care setting to the tertiary care centers is enormous leading to resource mismatch. Family physicians and other primary care providers are best positioned to develop practices and provide good quality urgent care to society. Family physicians, general practitioners, and medical officers are already functioning as the frontline care providers for any emergency or medical urgency arising within communities. Urgent care is essentially ambulatory care or outpatient care outside of a traditional hospital emergency room. "UCP aims to provide timely support, which is easily accessible with a focus on good clinical outcomes, e.g. survival, recovery, lack of adverse events, and complications. Core interventions of urgent care are centered on the 4Rs - Rescue, Resuscitate, Relate, and Refer. At present, there are no available, established training model for future faculty, residents, and medical students on "UCP" in India.
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