PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

PRIMARY HEALTH CARE is defined as

simple and effective measures in terms of cost, technique, and organization

which are easily accessible to the people requiring relief from pain and suffering

and which improve the living conditions of individuals, families, and communities.

These measures are aimed at providing answers to the fundamental human health needs, which are expressed as:

a. Where can I go and what can I do for the relief of pain and suffering?

b. What can I do to live a healthy life?

These measures include preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and community development activities.

Dr. H. Mahler

28th World Health Assembly, 1975

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?

By the year ____, 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.

FUNCTIONS OF HEALTH SECTOR

1. Direct provision of health services covering the aspects of promotion, prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and medical rehabilitation.

2. Development and provision of human resources for health, drugs and medical supplies, and financing schemes.

3. Research and development to continuously maintain the relevance and capability of the present health care system to the evolving national and local health situation.

PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

Primary health care is 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 can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination. It forms an integral part of the country's health system of which it is the central function and focus. It is the first level of contact of individuals, the family and community with the national health system bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work, and constitutes the first element of a continuing health care process."

HEALTH SERVICES TO BE MADE AVAILABLE

1. Education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them.

2. Promotion of food supply and proper nutrition.

3. Adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation.

4. Maternal and child health care including family planning.

5. Immunization against the major infectious diseases.

6. Prevention and control of locally endemic diseases.

7. Appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries.

8. Provision of essential drugs.

9. Prevention and control of leading non-communicable, life-style, related diseases and of illnesses arising from environmental and occupational health hazards.

10. Promotion of dental health.

11. Health care of the elderly and of the physically and mentally disabled including their rehabilitation.

PHYSICIAN'S ROLES IN PROMOTING HEALTH AND PREVENTING DISEASES

Reynaldo O. Joson, M.D.

ROJ@17may12