Primary health care from the global perspective: lessons learned from current research

摘要

Primary health care was declared the model for global health policy at a 1978 (World Health Organization, 1978) meeting of health ministers and experts from around the world. Primary health care requires a change in socioeconomic status, distribution of resources, a focus on health system development, and emphasis on basic health services (Magnussen et al., 2004). Irrespective of the model of provision, primary care currently faces challenges resulting from a change of demand from the population, a change of the supply of care, and changes in the financial and technological context. Health care systems will need to adapt to the challenges of multimorbidity in ageing populations; the expansion of non-communicable diseases that need to be tackled with new strategies; problems of sustain-ability and financial constraints and a shrinking workforce (Kringos et al., 2015). Well-organized and strong primary care may play a major role in successfully coping with these challenges, together with empowered patients. When all these challenges are considered, it could be said that primary care is facing high expectations nowadays. It is expected that primary care can help health systems become more responsive to changing health needs, offer more integrated care delivery, and increase the efficiency of the system overall (Kringos et al., 2015).