To make health systems more people-centred is not a new effort. Health professionals, policy makers and patients themselves know that the institutions making up health systems today are no longer fit for purpose. Comprehensively analysing the current degree to which health systems are people-centred will help countries to identify steps forward.

The OECD Framework for People-Centred Health Systems includes five dimensions – voice, choice, co-production, integration and respectfulness – that can be used to analyse the level of people-centredness in health systems. Applying this framework shows that few countries have comprehensively institutionalised people-centred policies, and that patient involvement in health policy decision-making is limited, with only 11% of countries granting patients a formal role in major decisions. 

While patient care often focuses on acute care in hospitals, patients’ experiences and outcomes depend on how care is provided across services. These start before access to acute care and extend well beyond a patient’s hospital stay. As patterns of health conditions and diseases evolve, the integration of out-of-hospital care is critical. 

Highlighting the importance of linking electronic health records across services, the OECD is now collecting new data to compare the performance of care after being discharged from hospital across countries. The OECD is also using data to track vulnerable individuals receiving long-term care in different settings to better understand their use of the health care system.

As populations age, and more people suffer from chronic conditions, additional pressure is placed on primary healthcare services, for which data is mostly lacking. The International Survey of People Living with Chronic Conditions (PaRIS) aims to fill this critical gap, by asking patients about aspects like access to primary healthcare and waiting times, as well as quality of life, pain, physical functioning & psychological well-being. More importantly, the PaRIS survey will shed light on the quality of integration and coordination between primary healthcare and other care settings. 

The survey took place in 20 countries, and involved more than 1600 primary care practices and over 100 000 participating patients. The first results from PaRIS  are expected in December 2024.