Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Primary Health Care

Abstract

Purpose/Context. This text provides some contributions from bioethics to analyze together the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the primary health care setting in Argentina.
Methodology/Approach. It is framed in the bioethical perspective of human rights with focus on social inequalities, social determinations of health and its historical/territorial processes of production and reproduction.
Results/Findings. We consider the interweaving of emotions and feelings at play in health care at the first level of care, specific to the current pandemic, identifying appropriate, reasonable and containerized ways to facilitate accessibility to health care. Some lines to work in this direction are outlined.
Discussion/Conclusions/Contributions. The topic is discussed on three axes: health system, actors involved in the course of the pandemic and possible actions. It is postulated that, especially in the first half of the pandemic, the importance of primary health care as a strategy for its approach is blurred, which could have avoided "overflows" of the health system. We also discuss the possibilities of concrete actions at the primary health care level with emphasis on social inequalities, beyond the slogan for the policy.