Abstract

Introduction:

Health reform raised to an unprecedented boost to the Primary Health Care. However, there are not addressed problems that threaten the success of this process.

Objectives:

Analyze the territorial distribution of physicians in primary care Community Health in Chile.

To estimate the association between the rate of medical hours per commune and some indicators of community health.

Materials and methods:

Ecological design type of comparison group was used as the unit of analysis taking the communes. Comparing the availability of medical hours, with national and international standards. Furthermore, the association with health indicators was estimated.

Results:

Among the 261 communes of the study, it is shown that the territorial distribution of physicians in primary care Community Health is uneven, an average of 3.11 per 10,000 medical time equivalents people in large communities is observed rate and 2.24 for small municipalities.

There is a serious shortage of medical hours in most of the communes. For the standard of the Ministry of Health there is a gap of 8.37%. For the standard 2,000 people, a 45.01% and every 1,200 people, with a 67.01%.

In the correlation analysis would have a statistically significant association with most of the outcome variables (General Mortality Rate, Adjusted General Mortality Rate, Infant Mortality Rate Late, Mortality rate 20-44 years, 45-64 years Mortality rate, mortality rate 65 and 79 and 80 and Mortality Rate).

Conclusions:

Regarding the purpose of the present research, this study may contribute, along with a few made about medical resource of Primary Health Care in Chile, to a better understanding of our health situation and therefore, the development of public policies in the field of human resources for health, that a greater attraction, retention and better distribution of medical resources in primary care guidance. Thus, contribute to strengthening the Integral Health Care Model Approach to Family and Community, currently being implemented.