[Outpatient rehabilitation in the Foral community of Navarra: 1972-1997]

Rehabilitation care for persons with disabilities who live in zones distant from the hospital of reference represents a challenge even for the Health Services of the most advanced countries. The requirements of the principles of "Health for All in the Year 2000" of the 1981 WHO Assembly, fully assumed by Foral Law 10/1990 (integral conception of health, efficiency, equity, decentralisation, quality and humanisation in the service) have stimulated the initiatives proceeding from the Rehabilitation Service of the "Virgen del Camino" Hospital orientated towards the pragmatic application of those principles to the reality our Community. The result has been the creation of an outpatient care network with units in both the Specialties Units and the Health Centres. As in other neighbouring Communities, we are witnessing a growing increase in the demand for rehabilitation treatment; to a great extent this is due to the increasing age of the population. This must be regulated in order to guarantee access to quality rehabilitation for every person who requires it. In order to achieve the complete fulfillment of the objectives of the WHO we propose the co-ordination between levels of attention (Primary care and Specialised care), consolidation of the figure of the rehabilitation doctor as a specialised individual providing support to Primary care in the whole community, and the realisation of certain protocols for rehabilitation referral agreed upon with the Primary care doctors