{
  "abstract": "The core functions of primary care are first contact access, comprehensiveness, continuity, coordination and person-centredness. These five core functions are highlighted as essential aspects of quality by the new WHO’s measurement framework. In low-income and middle-income countries, the core functions are rarely measured and routinely collected data does not support their measurement. Existing international tools to measure the quality of primary care may evaluate some aspects of these core functions, but none of the reviewed tools focused on all of them. In sub-Saharan Africa, the Primary Care Assessment Tool has been developed over the last decade and a regional version of the tool has been validated to only measure the core functions as defined by the WHO. The tool uses exit interviews with users as recommended by the WHO. The tool has been piloted in South Africa, Uganda and Benin and will now be implemented in 11 African countries. The tool can enable low-income and middle-income countries to measure the core functions and plan interventions to improve the quality of primary care.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Family Medicine and Primary Care, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa"
      ],
      "name": "Robert Mash"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University Faculty of Medicine, Kampala, Uganda"
      ],
      "name": "Innocent Besigye"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Littoral Department, CNHU-HKM Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie, Cotonou, Benin",
        "Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerpen, Belgium"
      ],
      "name": "Kéfilath Bello"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium"
      ],
      "name": "Anna Galle"
    }
  ],
  "title": "How to measure the core functions of primary care in low-income and middle-income country settings",
  "uid": "4dc6b028-8ae6-5f7a-bf95-739ed8e88123"
}