Health for All Filipinos in the Region in 5-10-15 Years Through Primary Health Care

HEALTH FOR ALL FILIPINOS IN THE REGION IN 5-10-15 YEARS

THROUGH PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

Reynaldo O. Joson, M.D.

What the movement means?

In 5-10-15 years, we shall attain a level of health that will permit all Filipinos in the Region to lead a socially and economically productive life.

We shall achieve this goal through the primary health care (PHC).

What is Primary Health Care (PHC)?

PHC is an approach which aims to reduce the inequality in health status by giving priority to the underserved population, advocating the use of appropriate technology, promoting intersectoral action for health, developing the community as an important base for health activities, and exhorting the authorities to make changes in the health system to make this responsive to the tasks given to it, starting with the improvement of planning and management and the development and use of appropriate health manpower.

PHC is the minimum set of health activities that must be provided and enjoyed by the population.

PHC is that part of the health system where contact is first made with the people.

What are the indices?

Minimum set of activities

Equity in health care

Community participation

Intersectoral collaboration

Appropriate technology

Health indices

Social indices

Economic indices

PHC does not simply mean community services or primary medical care in a conventional sense. It can be looked at in several different ways:

-as a range of programmes adapted to the patterns of health and disease of people living in a particular setting;

-as a level of care (the exact definition depending upon the country concerned) backed up by a well-organized referral system;

-as a strategy for reorienting the health system in order to provide the whole population with effective essential care, and to promote individual and community involvement and intersectoral collaboration; and

-as a philosophy, based on the principles of social equity, self-reliance, and community development.

PREAMBLE

We subscribe to the concept that health is a basic human right, that must be enjoyed by all people in the Region.

We are aware of the marked disparity in the health status among the people in the Region, which must be addressed, to enable the latter to enjoy the right to good health.

We are aware that the Constitution expressed that "The State shall adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development which shall endeavor to make essential goods, health, and other social service available to all the people at affordable cost" and "there shall be priority for the needs of the underprivileged, sick, elderly, disabled, women, and children."

We recognize that health is affected by a multiplicity of factors from within and outside the area of responsibility of the health sector, for which reason intersectoral and intrasectoral coordination becomes essential in the promotion and protection of the people's health.

We subscribe that primary health care is the principal strategy in the attainment of a level of health that will permit all Filipinos to lead a socially and economically productive life.

ROJ@17may11