[Impact of the pandemic on primary care. SESPAS Report 2022]

The COVID-19 pandemic, which last 2 years and still goes on, has pushed the primary health care (PC) to a current worrying situation of saturation and exhaustion. It is a community infectious disease, with a great amount of cases (around 10 million declared in January 2022) due to that, PC has made an extraordinary effort to pay attention on mild cases and on PC and to detect potentially serious cases early. Unfortunately, up to now, a global evaluation of the actions has not been carried out, in order to allow us to learn from this new experience. This article describes the different phases of the pandemic and its impact on PC. Finally, solutions are proposed to reinforce the central criteria that allow PC to be maintained as the foundation of the welfare state, longitudinality, resolution, accessibility, and care coordination and continuity, thanks to the contribution of resources and skills given to the PC. In conclusion, PC must still being the basis of the health system and it is mandatory to recover and claim those competencies and resources that should always have been a part of PC.