Primary health care is in crisis. It is underdeveloped in many countries, underfunded in others, and facing a severe workforce recruitment and retention challenge. Half the world’s population has no access to the most essential health services. Yet 80–90% of people’s health needs across their lifetime can be provided within a primary health-care framework—from maternity care and disease prevention through vaccination, to management of chronic conditions and palliative care. As populations age, and multimorbidity becomes the norm, the role of primary health-care workers becomes ever more important.
In 1978, the Declaration of Alma-Ata was ground-breaking in uniting health leaders behind the importance of primary health care as key to delivering better health for all, and to the value of social justice, health equity, and the social determinants of health. But 40 years later, this vision has not been realised. Instead, the focus has been on individual diseases with variable results. Now the Sustainable Development Goals provide new impetus to reach universal health coverage via strengthened primary health care.
This week, on Oct 25 and 26, the Global Conference on Primary Health Care will be co-hosted by the Government of Kazakhstan, WHO, and UNICEF. 1200 leaders (including heads of state; ministers of health, finance, education, and social welfare; non-governmental organisations; researchers; health practitioners; and youth leaders) will meet in Astana, Kazakhstan, to endorse the Astana Declaration. The aim is to renew political commitment from member states and global organisations to developing people-centred primary health care, building on the principles of the Alma-Ata Declaration.
A renaissance in primary health care is essential to provide health for all, including the most vulnerable. An example is Pakistan, where the provision of universal primary health care is likely to be the only route to address the country’s abysmal health indicators. Include, invest, innovate—the themes of the Tallinn Charter in 2018—put primary health care at the heart of sustainable health systems.
Read more at the Lancet
