Primary care teams to provide direct care to all residents in Catalonia's retirement homes

Primary Care Teams (EAPs) will provide direct medical attention to all residents living in Catalonia's retirement homes by the end of next year. 

EAPs that cater to a greater number of elderly residents will be reinforced, with €15 million earmarked to fund an additional 117 doctors and 130 nurses. 

The new care model will be applied to 72% of EAPs during the first six months of the year, in those cases where there is already a high degree of coordination with care homes. The remainder will come on board in the second half of 2024. 

Medical professionals currently based in elderly care facilities will continue in their roles, and work in a coordinated and integrated manner with the EAPs and the health system as a whole.

Primary care doctors will gradually assume the functions of doctors in care homes, and the latter will no longer be regulated by the Department of Social Rights, in terms of hours and doctor-resident ratios.

The role of EAP primary care nurses will involve both direct care and coordination with nursing teams in care homes. Their role will be complementary to the nurses based in the retirement homes. 

Improving care 

"It is a momentous decision, which changes the care of fragile people, and we are sure that it will greatly improve their quality of life and care," the Catalan health minister said. 

The care homes and Primary Care Centers (CAPs) will share patients' clinical history, prescriptions and medication plans, Manel Balcells, explained in a press conference. 

Health care staff will travel to care homes "when necessary," he said, adding that "we must consider it the same as a person in their home." 

Social Rights minister, Carles Campuzano, said the aim was to guarantee that all elderly people living in care homes can be attended to by CAPs. 

"In a system of universal access to health care," he explained, primary care staff must be the ones guaranteeing residents' wellbeing. 

Pandemic lessons  

According to data from the Department of Health and Social Rights, care home residents tend to have significant health care needs: they have an average of 9.2 chronic diseases (with a 57% prevalence of dementia); an annual mortality of 20% (50% have palliative care needs); almost 90% are classified in the categories of maximum clinical complexity or high risk, and 97% have a high degree of dependence. 

Joint training has already been given to 15,532 staff from care homes and primary care teams, Campuzano explained. 

The two ministers said the change in the model of care is one of the lessons learned from the pandemic. They indicated that they hope to press on with a bill to create an Integrated Social and Health Care Agency before the end of the year. 

117 doctors and 130 more nurses 

Catalonia currently has 1,042 residential centers for the elderly, with a total of 61,498 places. Of the total of 376 EAPs, 317 (84.3%) have at least one care home in their area.  

Balcells explained that primary care teams will be reinforced based on the number of care homes they are responsible for. An additional 117 doctors and 130 nurses will be needed, at a cost of €15 million.  

Doctors currently dedicated solely to care homes – around 100 at the moment – will be offered to join the new system.