To examine the advantages and disadvantages of two different Health Care Systems from the perspective of Primary Care (PC) physicians.
Qualitative research based on the analysis of documents written as diaries for the study.
Primary Care in the Canary Islands (Spain) and Alberta (Canada)
Intentional sample to identify different profiles of physicians.
Participants were asked to write a document describing their work activities, including the impact of the organisational system and on their personal life. Two representatives of the health care system were asked to write a detailed description about how PC is organised in their country. Nine diaries were collected (5 from the Canary Islands and 4 from Alberta). Ritchie & Spencer framework was used for the analysis.
In Alberta, physicians have access to more complementary tests; they can offer hospital care; they have to sort out administrative work; they can choose were to work; and can specialise in different types of health care services. In the Canary Islands physicians can have paid holidays and the administrative issues do not depend on them, patients have a physician assigned and seem to have more institutional support.
The results of this study allow us to constructively analyse the role of PC physicians, assess the advantages and re-think the disadvantages related to how we work in order to learn from other health care systems.