Building an Improved Primary Health Care System in Turkey through Care Integration

Turkey has realized a very successful health reform between 2003 and 2013. The Ministry of Health (MoH) has developed strategic objectives and major transformation processes under the reform primarily focused on people and gave priority to improve and reshape the primary care structure through the introduction of the Family Medicine (FM) model. Universal health coverage has been established, and the MoH initiated various programs to improve the service provision at all stages. While the overall transformation process includes many aspects of a broader integration of care, an explicit 'integrated care' model has never been discussed in Turkey. This report therefore aims to provide a picture of the Turkish health system from an integrated care perspective while prioritizing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and to inform policy makers andpractitioners on the needs and opportunities to design a broader care integration model as well as to present specific recommendations on how to improve integration among the primary health care (PHC) actors. The scope of this report covers analysis and means for integration within the primary care levels as this seems a good entry point for integrated care within the Turkish context. Discussions on the vertical integration between preventive, primary, and secondary care as well as the financial models for integration are left to future activities/efforts