Topic: Primary Health Care

Lecturer: Dr. Maridith De Leon-Afuang

PRIMARY HEALTH CARE
The ultimate goal of primary health care is better health
for all
5 key elements to achieve the goal of better health for all
(WHO):

reducing exclusion and social disparities in health

(universal coverage reforms);
organizing health services around people's needs
and expectations (service delivery reforms);
integrating health into all sectors (public policy
reforms);
pursuing collaborative models of policy dialogue
(leadership reforms); and
increasing stakeholder participation.

Health for All also launched a political struggle on at

least three fronts.

First, it sought to make health part of the political

agenda for development, to upgrade the profile of
health and increase its prestige.
Second, it sought to broaden the approach to
health, to move away from the narrow medical
model of curative care. It acknowledged the power
of prevention
On a third political front, it argued that better
health for populations should go hand-in-hand, in
a mutually supportive way, with better economic
and social productivity

Primary Health Care

A majority of prevailing health problems can be

satisfactorily managed.
The closest to the people.
Provided by the primary health centers.
Secondary/Tertiary Health Care
Secondary health care

More complex problems are dealt with.

Comprises curative services
Provided by the district hospitals
The 1st referral level

Tertiary health care

Offers super-specialist care

Provided by regional/central level institution.
Provide training programs

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The first level of contact between the individual

and the health system.
Essential health care (PHC) is provided.

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Primary Health Care declared during the First International

Convention Alma Ata, USSR
September 6-12,1978
Goal: Health for All by the year 2000
Primary health care (PHC) became a core policy for
the World Health Organization with the Alma-Ata
Declaration in 1978 and the Health-for-All by the
Year 2000 Program.
The commitment to global improvements in
health, especially for the most disadvantaged
populations, was renewed in 1998 by the World
Health Assembly. This led to the Health-for-All for
the twenty-first Century policy and program,
within which the commitment to PHC
development is restated.

Adopted in the Philippines through LOI 949 signed by

Pres.Marcos
October19,1979
Theme: Health in the Hands of the People by 2020
What is Primary Health Care?
PHC is essential health care that is a socially appropriate,
universally accessible, scientifically sound first level care
provided by a suitably trained workforce supported by
integrated referral systems and in a way that gives priority
to those most in need, maximises community and
individual self-reliance and participation and involves
collaboration with other sectors. It includes the following:
health promotion
illness prevention
care of the sick
advocacy
community development

PHC based on the following principles :

Social equity
Nation-wide coverage
Self-reliance
Inter-sectoral coordination
Peoples involvement in the planning and
implementation of health programs

The 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata proposed a set of

PRINCIPLES for primary health care. PHC should:
1. Reflect and evolve from the economic
conditions and socio-cultural and political
characteristics of the country and its communities,
and be based on the application of the relevant
results of social, biomedical and health services
research and public health experience
2. Address the main health problems in the
community, providing promotive, preventive,
curative and rehabilitative services accordingly
3. Involve, in addition to the health sector, all
related sectors and aspects of national and
community development, in particular agriculture,
animal husbandry, food, industry, education,
housing, public works,
4. Promote maximum community and individual
self-reliance and participation in the planning,
organization, operation and control of primary
health care, making fullest use of local, national
and other available resources; and to this end
develop through appropriate education the ability
of communities to participate

PHC is:
Essential health care based on practical,
scientifically sound and socially acceptable
methods and technology made universally
accessible to individuals and families in the
community through their full participation and at a

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Principles for PHC

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cost that community and the country can afford

(Alma-Ata, 1978)

5. Be sustained by integrated, functional and

mutually-supportive referral systems, leading to
the progressive improvement of comprehensive
health care for all, and giving priority to those most
in need
6. Rely, at local and referral levels, on health
workers, including physicians, nurses, midwives,
auxiliaries and community workers as applicable,
as well as traditional practitioners as needed,
suitably trained socially and technically to work as
a health team and to respond to the expressed
health needs of the community.
CORNERSTONE/ PILLARS OF PHC:
1.

Active Community Participation

There must be a continuing effort to secure
meaningful involvement of the community
in the planning, implementation and
maintenance of health services, beside
maximum reliance on local resources such
as manpower, money and materials

2.

Intra and Inter-sectoral linkages

4 sectors/ components:

4.

Use of Appropriate Technology

Is technology that is scientifically sound,
adaptable to local needs, acceptable to
those who apply it and for those for whom
it is used and can be maintained by the
people themselves in keeping with the
principle of self reliance with the resources
the community and country can afford.
Support Mechanism Made Available

3.

Health Care Financing

Health Care Delivery
Health Regulation
Good Governance

1. Education concerning prevailing health problems

and the methods of preventing and controlling
them.
2. Promotion of food supply and proper nutrition
3. An adequate supply of safe water and basic
sanitation
4. Maternal and child health care, including family
planning.
5. Immunization against the major infectious
diseases
6. Prevention and control of locally endemic
diseases
7. Appropriate treatment of common diseases and
injuries
8. Basic laboratory services and provision of
essential drugs.
9. Training of health guides, health workers and
health assistants.
10. Referral services
Mental health
Physical handicaps
Health and social care of the elderly

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There is a set of CORE ACTIVITIES, which were

normally defined nationally or locally. According to
the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata proposed that
these activities should include:

CORE ACTIVITIES FOR PHC:

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WHO Strategies of PHC

Comprehensiveness
Continuity

1. Reducing excess mortality of poor marginalized

populations:
Appropriateness
PHC must ensure access to health services
for the most disadvantaged populations,
and focus on interventions which will
directly impact on the major causes of
mortality, morbidity and disability for those
populations.
2. Reducing the leading risk factors to human
health:
PHC, through its preventative and health
promotion roles, must address those known
risk factors, which are the major
determinants of health outcomes for local
populations.
3. Developing Sustainable Health Systems:

Whether the service is needed at all in

relation to essential human needs, priorities
and policies.
The service has to be properly selected and
carried out by trained personnel in the
proper way.
Adequacy

Affordability

The cost should be within the means and

resources of the individual and the country.

Accessibility
PHC as a component of health systems
must develop in ways, which are financially
sustainable, supported by political leaders,
and supported by the populations served.
4, Developing an enabling policy and institutional
environment:

Reachable, convenient services

Geographic, economic, cultural accessibility

Acceptability

PHC policy must be integrated with other

policy domains, and play its part in the
pursuit of wider social, economic,
environmental and development policy.
The Basic Requirements for Sound PHC (the 8 As
and the 3 Cs)

Acceptability of care depends on a variety

of factors, including satisfactory
communication between health care
providers and the patients, whether the
patients trust this care, and whether the
patients believe in the confidentiality and
privacy of information shared with the
providers.

Availability

Availability of medical care means that care

can be obtained whenever people need it.

Appropriateness
Availability
Adequacy
Accessibility
Acceptability
Affordability
Assessability
Accountability
Completeness

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The service proportionate to requirement.

Sufficient volume of care to meet the need
and demand of a community

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Assessability
Assessability means that medical care can
be readily evaluated.

Accountability
Accountability implies the feasibility of
regular review of financial records by
certified public accountants.

to put people first

Completeness

Completeness of care requires adequate

attention to all aspects of a medical
problem, including prevention, early
detection, diagnosis, treatment, follow up
measures, and rehabilitation.

Comprehensiveness

Comprehensiveness of care means that care

is provided for all types of health problems.

Continuity

Continuity of care requires that the

management of a patients care over time
be coordinated among providers.

SUMMARY:
Primary care is an approach that:

Primary health care is a people-centred approach

to health that makes prevention as important as
cure. As part of this preventive approach, it tackles
the root causes of ill health, also in non-health
sectors, thus offering an upstream attack on
threats to health.
Chan, Margaret MD, Consul General WHO, 2008
Primary health care approach is the most
efficient, fair, and cost-effective way to organize a
health system
Chan, Margaret MD, Consul General WHO, 2008
Primary health care is not cheap. It is not a
bargain-basement way for governments to fulfil
their duty to protect all citizens from risks and
dangers to health.
We need a better body of evidence demonstrating
costs and benefits, best practices, interventions
that work best in specific situations, and the
impact of these interventions on health outcomes.

Focuses on the person not the disease,

considers all determinants of health
Integrates care when there is more than
one problem
Uses resources to narrow differences

We need proof of programmes, and proof of

progress. As I have said, what gets measured gets
done.

Primary Health Care

Primary care brings promotion and prevention, cure

and care together in a safe, effective and socially
productive way at the interface between the
population and the health system.

Forms the basis for other levels of health

systems
Addresses most important problems in the
community by providing preventive,
curative, and rehabilitative services

-The contribution of primary health care to the

Millennium Development Goals
Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World
Health Organization
Buenos Aires, Argentina 16 August 2007

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Why a renewal of primary health care (PHC), and

why now, more than ever?
The World Health Report 2008

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Organizes deployment of resources aiming

at promoting and maintaining health.

~FIN~

Common med board question: President Marcos

Letter of Instruction (LOI 949) October 19, 1979

Yo! The ones in red are some of the things that

were stressed in the lecture. However, here are
some additional notes from Sarah and Lani that was
taken during Dra. Maridiths lecture.

Health in the Hands of the People by 2020

That in all things God may be glorified

Alma-Ata- Origin of PHC

- Russia/USSR
Devolution- giving the leadership to LGUs
People empowerment- health by the hands of
people or the community
Principles of PHC notes:

Inter-sectoral coordination:
Coordination with NGOs

Peoples involvement in the

planning and implementation of
health programs
LGUs should address the referral
sys= always a two-way referral!
Be aware of different facilities
SDN: service delivery network

Pillars of PHC notes:

Active Community Participation:
Ninas Kugon- a common Filipino attitude
An attitude whereby enthusiasm for something to be
done quickly wanes, most of the time resulting to
haphazard or unfinished work.

Intra and Inter-sectoral linkages:

Ex: Aquino Health Policy
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KP= Kalusugang Pangkalahatan

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