Integrated public town hospitals

Purpose: Integrated a unique model of health-care providing system which combines both primary and secondary health care in one roof. Our aim is to describe and discuss the points of this Turkish version of health care units. Context: Integrated town hospitals are the government hospitals which serves both primary and secondary health care issues. In other words, these hospitals combine emergency service and primary and secondary care units in one hospital. In that way, it serves care for both in-patients and out-patients. These hospitals are only present in towns that have a small population size. There are not many doctors or patient beds in these hospitals. State of the art: Family physicians and specialists (such as; internal medicine doctors, paediatrician etc) can work in these hospitals together and share all patients’ care such as emergency service, primary care, secondary care. Only family physicians have responsibility for preventive health care subjects and the follow up of pregnant women, infants, vaccination program and etc. Family physicians can take night shifts and go on work in the morning. Statements for debate: As primary and secondary health care systems are two separated systems, their integration can exert more pressure especially for the doctors serving primary care. As follow up of specific patients and trying to follow the vaccination and other prevention programs give great responsibility for family physicians, additional jobs like taking emergency shifts can make their work more difficult. Two questions were remained to be answered: Are these hospitals designed well enough for patients’ care? Are these hospitals consistent with primary care policies in our country or not?