• Patricia Norwood, Isabel Correia, Sebastian Heidenreich, Paula Veiga, and Verity Watson.
• Health Economics Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, UK.
• Fam Pract. 2021 Sep 25; 38 (5): 569-575.

BackgroundIn 2005, the Portuguese government launched a Primary Care reform that aimed to reinforce continuity of care. After a promising start, the reform is still incomplete and continuity has been compromised by the lack of General Practice doctors.ObjectiveThis study evaluates public preferences for relational continuity of care alongside other attributes of Primary Care services in Portugal.MethodsWe use a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to evaluate preferences and estimate the population's willingness to pay (WTP) for Primary Care attributes. We use a sequential, mixed-methods approach to develop a D-efficient fractional factorial design for the DCE. Five attributes were included in the DCE and there were 32 DCE choice sets. The data collection was conducted in 2014 and the final sample had 517 respondents. A random parameters multinomial logit was used to analyse the data.ResultsWe find that respondents value relational continuity of care, but that the current focus of the Portuguese NHS on relational continuity at the expense of other attributes is too simplistic.ConclusionsRelational continuity should be part of a broader policy that emphasizes person-centred care and considers the preferences of patients for Primary Care attributes.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

14 keywords...

hide…