Need for and Supply of Primary Care in Rural Areas

농촌지역의 의료요구와 의료공급에 관한 연구

Health policy is directed to equity in the provision of primary care for rural people before the year of 2, 000. This study aimed to define and identify the need for physician's care by using empirical data, and suggested an alternative of the primary care delivery system in rural areas to the government. 1. Twenty percent of the study population wanted to obtain any form of medical care services. : 9.3 percent of the population was in need for physician's care; 15 percent of the need was met by physicians, while 85 percent remained unmet at the time of survey in 1979. 2. For meeting all the need for physician's primary care, 2.9 annual physician visits per capita are demanded. An alternative, which was devised in some favourable way at reasonable cost in rural settings, was suggested. It was to deploy the physician extender such as community health practitioner in the infrastructure of the health care delivery system, whose supervision is provided by physician, based on experience of the KHDI health demonstration project. 3. One physician, two community health practitioners and two community health aides should be assigned in distant locations for meeting all the estimated need for physician's primary care for 10, 000 rural underserved residents.