Primary Health Care
Primary Health Care
Primary Health Care
Health
• Health is a fundamental human right
• State responsibility for the health of its
people
• National Govt all over the world are
striving to expand and improve their
health care services
• The current situation is
– Urban oriented
– Mostly curative in nature
– Accessible to a small part of population
Health
geographical
employability HEALTH mobility
family biological
finances factors
McMurray, A. (2003) pg.12
Slide 8
Primary Health Care
• At the international level, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights established a
breakthrough in 1948, by stating in Article 25:
“Everyone has the right to a standard of
living adequate for the health and wellbeing of
himself and his family”
• The preamble to the WHO Constitution also
affirms that it is one of the fundamental rights
of every human being to enjoy “The highest
attainable standard of health”
Primary Health Care
• Increasing importance given to social
justice and equity, recognition of the
crucial role of community
participation, changing ideas about
the nature of health and
development, the importance of
political will called for new
approaches to make medicine in the
service of humanity more effective.
Primary Health Care
• Against the above background, the 30th World
health Assembly resolved in May 1977 at
Almata , that
“the main social target of governments and
WHO in the coming decades should be
The attainment by all citizens of the world by
the year 2000 of a level of health that will
permit them to lead a socially and
economically productive life”
• This culminated in the international objective
of HEALTH FOR ALL by the year 2000 as the
social goal of all governments.
Primary Health Care
• The joint WHO – UNICEF international
conference in 1978 at Alma – Ata (USSR)
the governments of 134 countries and
many voluntary agencies called for a
revolutionary approach to health care.
• Declaring that “The existing gross
inequality in the health status of people
particularly between developed and
developing countries as well as within
countries is politically, socially and
economically unacceptable”
Primary Health Care
• Health for all means that health is to be brought
within the reach of every one in a given
community.
• It implies the removal of obstacles to health –
that is to say the elimination of
– Malnutrition
– Ignorance
– Disease
– Contaminated water supply
– Unhygienic housing etc
• It depends on continued progress in medicine
and public health.
• Alma Ata Declaration called on all
governments to formulate national
policies, strategies and plans of action to
launch and sustain primary health care as
part of a national health system.
• Equity
• Community Participation
• Intersectoral Coordination
• Appropriate Technology
Equity/Equitable Distribution
• The first key principle in primary health
care strategy is equity or equitable
distribution of health services
• Health services must be shared equally
by all people irrespective of their
ability to pay and all( rich or poor,
urban or rural) must have access to
health services
• health services are mainly in towns
Inaccessibility to majority of
population
• Social injustice
• Availability -Insurance/NHS
Community Participation
• Overall responsibility is of the State
• The involvement of individuals,
families, and communities in promotion
of their own health and welfare is an
essential ingredient of primary health
care
• PHC coverage cannot be achieved
without the involvement of community in
planning, implementation and
maintenance of health services
• Polio. FP
Intersectoral Coordination
• Declaration of Alma –Ata states that
PHC involves in addition to the health
sector all related sectors and aspects of
national and community development,
in particular education, agriculture,
animal husbandry, food, industry,
education, housing, public works,
communication
• Started in 1987
• Introduced focused LGAs (Nigeria
approach)
• Later willing LGAs
• Then others joined
• EPI was used as an entry point in most
parts of the country.
PHC in Nigeria