Primary Health Care

Often abbreviated as "PHC", has been defined as "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 the community and the country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination". (WHO)

PHC was declared in the ALMA-ATA CONFERENCE in 1978, as a strategy to community health development. It is a strategy aimed to provide essential health care that is: Community based Accessible Part and parcel of the total socio economic development effort of the nation. Acceptable Sustainable at an affordable cost.

Framework Peoples Empowerment and Partnership is the Key Strategy to achieve the goal, Health For all Filipinos by the year 2000 And Health in the Hands of the People by the year 2020

Mission of PHC Primary health care aims to strengthen the healthcare system by increasing opportunities and supporting the conditions wherein people will manage their own health care.

Principles of PHC Health and development are interrelated. Development is a quest for an improve quality of life for all. Essential health services must be accessible, available, acceptable, and affordable. Genuine peoples participation is essential, the heart and soul of PHC. 4 As of PHC

 Accessibility Availability Acceptability affordability Social mobilization enhances people participation or governance, support system provided by the Government, networking, and developing secondary leaders. Decentralization

Objectives of PHC Improvement in the level of health care of the community. Favorable population growth structure. Reduction in the prevalence of preventable, communicable and other diseases. Reduction in the morbidity and mortality rates especially among infants and children. Extension of essential health services with priority given to the undeserved sectors. Improvement in basic sanitation. Development of the capability of the community aimed at self reliance. Maximizing the contribution of the other sectors for the social and economic development of the community.

Four Cornerstones/Pillars in PHC Active community participation. Intra and Inter sartorial linkages. Use of appropriate technology. Support mechanism made available.

Strategies Elevating health to a comprehensive and sustained national effort.

Promoting and supporting community health managed system. Increasing efficiencies in the health sector. Advancing essential national health search.

Elements of PHC Education on prevailing health problems. Locally endemic disease prevention and control. Expanded program of immunization. Maternal and child health and family planning. Environmental sanitation and safe water supply. Nutrition and food supply. Treatment of communicable & non communicable diseases conditions. Supply and proper use of essential drugs and herbal medicine. Dental health promotion. Access to and use of hospitals as centers of wellness. Mental health promotion.

The ultimate goal of primary health care is better health for all. WHO has identified five key elements to achieving that goal: 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.

Basic principles identified in the Alma Ata Declaration that should be formulated in national policies in order to launch and sustain PHC as part of a comprehensive health system and in coordination with other sectors:

Equitable distribution of health care according this principle, primary care and other services to meet the main health problems in a community must be provided equally to all individuals irrespective of their gender, age, caste, color, urban/rural location and social class. Community participation in order to make the fullest use of local, national and other available resources. Community participation was also a reaction to unsustainable vertical health-approaches which refers to when a wealthier country funds a poorer country's health care. Health workforce development comprehensive health care relies on adequate numbers and distribution of trained physicians, nurses, allied health professions, community health workers and others working as a health team and supported at the local and referral levels. Use of appropriate technology medical technology should be provided that is accessible, affordable, feasible and culturally acceptable to the community. Multi-sectional approach recognition that health cannot be improved by intervention within just the formal health sector; other sectors are equally important in promoting the health and self-reliance of communities.