Abstract
District Health Care Movement is an important process to achieve integrated healthcare delivery through an organised whole-of-society multidisciplinary care approach by effectively and efficiently utilising healthcare resources at the community level, making it more accessible, available, and affordable to address healthcare needs of the community. In the chapter, an overview is provided on the District Health Care Movement from the perspectives of accessibility to health services, primary health care, infrastructure establishment, and team-based participation of healthcare professionals and providers. Putting District Health Care Movement in action, various approaches are discussed with Hong Kong’s District Health Centre model and Singapore’s Primary Care Network models as illustrations. The challenges and barriers of implementing the District Health Care Movement are addressed. Family Doctors are essential participants of the multidisciplinary care team. A study conducted by the Hong Kong College of Family Physicians in 2021 was to explore Family Doctors’ understanding of the District Health Centre model in Hong Kong and to collect opinions from Family Doctors in enabling the primary healthcare team to fulfil the mission and vision of District Health Care Movement. This is an important initiative to fill the existing gaps of the healthcare system in meeting healthcare needs of the community.
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Leung, W.L.H. (2023). District Health Care Movement. In: Fong, B.Y.F., Wong, W.C.W. (eds) Gaps and Actions in Health Improvement from Hong Kong and Beyond. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4491-0_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4491-0_25
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