Family Medicine Practice During COVID-19 Pandemic in Canton Sarajevo: Positive and Negative Aspects.

Abstract

Background: After the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus on 30 January 2020 a public health emergency of international importance, health authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovinaas in other countries around the world, have ordered active surveillance, early detection, isolation and management, cases, contact monitoring and prevention of the spread of infection.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe and analyze of the organization of family medicine during COVID-19 pandemic in Canton Sarajevo with its positive and negative aspects.

Methods: The case study design provided an ideal framework for systematic research into the organization of primary health care in Sarajevo Canton during the COVID-19 pandemic as it is an empirical study exploring a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly visible. Multiple sources of evidence are used. Data were collected in several different ways: analyzing policies, laws, regulations, decisions related to the COVID pandemic, insight into changes in the health information system, collecting data from reports, and through a group interview (Delphi exploratory) with eleven family medicine specialists.

Results: Primary care was organized as two parallel systems with family medicine in the center. The first system was COVID-19 primary care and the second was regular care for non-COVID-19 patients. Family medicine physicians despite a numerus setbacks provide health care for 106346 COVID-19 cases.

Discussion: Every principal (first contact access, person-centered care, comprehensiveness, continuity of care, community based, coordination of care, and holistic modeling) of family medicine was interrupted with consequences for patients and family physicians.

Conclusion: Additional research is needed to examine all facets of the family medicine and primary health care response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sarajevo Canton.