Editor's note
Low-tech, under-trained health workers focusing on a few “priority diseases” working in isolation in a rural outpost – this unglamorous image of primary care is now an inadequate portrayal of the immense potential that primary care can really offer to the health of each nation. The WHO’s World Health Report 2008: Primary Health Care - Now More Than Ever is a timely call to national governments and professional bodies to re-energise primary care and shift it into the centre of healthcare delivery, where it truly belongs. In this issue of MFP, Dr Jan Ranford, in the inaugural Rajakumar Oration, presented the evidence supporting the WHO’s call for reform.
Many of us are unaware of the scale of Dr Rajakumar’s influence outside our country. It is gratifying to note that an Australian general practitioner, Dr Naomi Harris, has been so inspired by him that she has initiated a movement named after him (The Rajakumar Movement). It is hoped that this movement will promote aspects that so characterised Dr Rajakumar: the depth of understanding of the family medicine as a discipline and the leadership skills that will develop our discipline further.
The readers of our online version will be able to download the abstracts of the Family Medicine Specialist Association’s 13th Scientific Conference. This is the first time that a supplement of conference abstract is published by MFP
.WHAT PRIMARY CARE IS AND IS NOT:
- primary care provides a place to which people can bring a wide range of health problems – it is not acceptable that in low-income countries primary care would only deal with a few “priority diseases”;
- primary care is a hub from which patients are guided through the health system – it is not acceptable that, in low-income countries, primary care would be reduced to a stand-alone health post or isolated community-health worker;
- primary care facilitates ongoing relationships between patients and clinicians, within which patients participate in decision-making about their health and health care; it builds bridges between personal health care and patients’ families and communities – it is not acceptable that, in low-income countries, primary care would be restricted to a one-way delivery channel for priority health interventions;
- primary care opens opportunities for disease prevention and health promotion as well as early detection of disease – it is not acceptable that, in low-income countries, primary care would just be about treating common ailments;
- primary care requires teams of health professionals: physicians, nurse practitioners, and assistants with specific and sophisticated biomedical and social skills – it is not acceptable that, in low-income countries, primary care would be synonymous with low-tech, non-professional care for the rural poor who cannot afford any better;
- primary care requires adequate resources and investment, and can then provide much better value for money than its alternatives – it is not acceptable that, in low-income countries, primary care would have to be financed through out-of-pocket payments on the erroneous assumption that it is cheap and the poor should be able to afford it.
Taken from World Health Report 2008: Primary Health Care - Now More Than Ever [page xvii]
CL Teng
tengcl@gmail.com