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Building and Sustaining a Robust Primary Health Care System: Lessons from Country Experiences


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1 Physician and health policy specialist, Mumbai, India., India
 

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Primary health care has been long acknowledged as the fundamental pillar of any health system, and a key instrument for achieving efficient, equitable, and universal health care. While accepting the significance of primary health care to be sacrosanct, little recognition is often accorded to the systemic prerequisites of a strong primary health care system, even as efforts to expand and/or strengthen primary care continue fervently. An attempt has been made in this paper to identify such prerequisites through a review of notable country examples and their present and past experiences. These pertain not just to the health sector but also straddle multiple important social, economic, and political dimensions.


Keywords

Primary health care, general practice, universal health coverage, family medicine, family health team, gatekeeper, community participation, intersectoral coordination
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  • Building and Sustaining a Robust Primary Health Care System: Lessons from Country Experiences

Abstract Views: 231  |  PDF Views: 126

Authors

Soham D Bhaduri
Physician and health policy specialist, Mumbai, India., India

Abstract


Primary health care has been long acknowledged as the fundamental pillar of any health system, and a key instrument for achieving efficient, equitable, and universal health care. While accepting the significance of primary health care to be sacrosanct, little recognition is often accorded to the systemic prerequisites of a strong primary health care system, even as efforts to expand and/or strengthen primary care continue fervently. An attempt has been made in this paper to identify such prerequisites through a review of notable country examples and their present and past experiences. These pertain not just to the health sector but also straddle multiple important social, economic, and political dimensions.


Keywords


Primary health care, general practice, universal health coverage, family medicine, family health team, gatekeeper, community participation, intersectoral coordination

References