Primary Health Care

Ms. Alina Hameed

Lecturer
Lahore School of Nursing
The University of Lahore

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 OBJECTIVES

• Explain the elements of PHC in relation to

health?

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 Primary Health Care (PHC)
• 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 cost that community and the country can
afford …
(Alma-Ata, 1978)
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 Health for all (who)
Definition: “the attainment of a level of
health that will enable every individual to
live socially and economically productive
life, i.e. he can work productively in
social life in the community in which he
lives”.

Key to achieve health for all is :

Primary Health Care.
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 Elements of PHC

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:

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 Cont …

1. Education concerning prevailing health

problems and the methods of preventing and
controlling them

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 Cont …

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

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 Cont …

5. Immunization against the major infectious

diseases.
6. Prevention and control of locally endemic
diseases.
7. Appropriate treatment of common diseases
and injuries

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 Cont …

8. Basic laboratory services and provision of

essential drugs.
9. Training of health guides, health workers and
health assistants.
10. Referral services

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 WHO Strategies of PHC
1. Reducing excess mortality of poor
marginalized populations:
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.

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 WHO Strategies of PHC

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.

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 Cont …
3. Developing Sustainable Health Systems:
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.

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 Cont …

4, Developing an enabling policy and

institutional environment:
PHC policy must be integrated with other
policy domains, and play its part in the pursuit
of wider social, economic, environmental and
development
policy.

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 References:

• Allender, J. A., &Spradley, B. W. (2010). Community Health

Nursing: Promoting and Protecting the Public's Health (7th ed.).
Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams &Wilkins.
• Anderson, E. T., & McFarlane, J. M.(2008). Community as partner:
Theory and practice in Nursing (5th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott
Williams &Wilkins.
• Basavanthappa, B. T. (2008). Essentials of Community Health Nursing
(2nd ed.). India: Jaypee.
• Clark, M. J. D. (1999). Community Health Nursing Handbook Value Pack.
Stamford: Prentice Hall.
• Hitchcock, J. E., Schubert, P. E., & Thomas, S. A. (2003). Community
Health Nursing: Caring In Action (2nd ed.). Clifton Park, NY:
Thomson/Delmar Learning.
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• Hunt, R. (2001). Introduction to Community-Based
Nursing(2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins.
• Naidu, K. M. (2010). Community Health Nursing. India:
Gyan Publishing House.
• Park, J. E. (1989). Text book preventive and social
medicine (22nded.). India: Jabalpur.
• Patney, S. (2008). Text Book of Community Health
Nursing. New Delhi: CBS.
• Thornbory, G. (2009). Public Health Nursing: A Textbook
for Health Visitors, School Nurses and Occupational
Health Nurses. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

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