ATTITUDE OF A SAMPLE OF GENERAL PHYSICIANS WORKING IN SOME PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTERS IN BAGHDAD, AL-KARKH TOWARDS FAMILY MEDICINE

Abstract

Worldwide, there is a general agreement that primary care is the linchpin of effective health care delivery, family medicine as a cornerstone in the modern health system would be the best to achieve a more efficient and effective health care delivery. The aim of this study was to explore the attitude of a sample of general physicians working in some primary health care centers in Baghdad towards family medicine. A cross- sectional study was implemented by collected, data using filling the questionnaire by general physicians. A convenient sample including 200 general physicians working in twenty selected primary health care centers. This study was conducted from first of January 2016 till end July 2016. The results show that present study found that the responses were really encouraging and promising; out of the 200 respondents (90%) have shown scores of good responses and overall agreement for family medicine in Iraq. The socio demographic characteristics in the present study including age, gender, years of employment were shown no significant association with the participant’s responses. The percentage of agreement carried among statements with highest percentage of agreement was for statement no.1 family physician is the point of first medical contact within the health care system (97 %) and the lowest percentage of agreements was for statement no. 2 (family physician providing open and unlimited access to its users) (61%). The present study concluded that it reflected the existence of good family physician's role could greatly impact on family medicine and can reflected a promising trend toward changing the current system.