Primary health care

All people, everywhere, deserve the right care, right in their community. This is the fundamental premise of primary health care.

Primary health care (PHC) addresses the majority of a person’s health needs throughout their lifetime. This includes physical, mental and social well-being and it is people-centred rather than disease-centred. PHC is a whole-of-society approach that includes health promotion, disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care.

A primary health care approach includes three components:

• meeting people’s health needs throughout their lives;
• addressing the broader determinants of health through multisectoral policy and action; and
• empowering individuals, families and communities to take charge of their own health.

By providing care in the community as well as care through the community, PHC addresses not only individual and family health needs, but also the broader issue of public health and the needs of defined populations.

The principles of PHC were first outlined in the Declaration of Alma-Ata in 1978, a seminal milestone in global health. Forty years later, global leaders ratified the Declaration of Astana at the Global Conference on Primary Health Care which took place in Astana, Kazakhstan in October 2018.

PHC, because it is about how best to provide health care and services to everyone, everywhere, is the most efficient and effective way to achieve health for all.

In 1978, leaders from around the world gathered in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, for what would prove to be a seminal moment in global health. The Declaration of Alma-Ata was the first to call for urgent and effective national and international action to develop and implement primary health care throughout the world.”

How can we transform the bold vision of the Declaration of Astana into action? Moving to a primary health care approach helps to strengthen health systems and is the most effective way to achieve universal health coverage. The PHC Operational Framework outlines a series of levers that can be actioned to align health systems according to a PHC approach.