Are family medicine centres achieving their target in Turkey: Impact on health care utilization of mothers and infants

Aysun Aygun ()

International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 2021, vol. 36, issue 1, 189-208

Abstract: The family medicine (FM) system was introduced as the main source of primary care in Turkey as a component of the Health Transformation Program reforms. During a gradual implementation process, provinces switched to the FM system at different points in time between 2005 and 2010. In this paper, we use a micro‐level data set to test whether the health care utilization of mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period is affected by the program. Using a difference‐in‐differences method for estimation, we find that the program is only effective for pregnant women who lived in provinces with a limited availability of specialist doctors. As a result of the FM program, women are likely to have their first prenatal consultancy earlier and their probability of seeing a doctor during their prenatal visit and receiving an ultrasound and blood and urine sample checks increases if they live in a province with a low number of specialists per 10,000 people. We find that the impact of the FM program decreases as the rate of specialists in a province increases, which negates any positive effect of the program on health care use.

Date: 2021
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