8.M. Pro/con workshop: Moving towards primary health care-oriented health systems: Insights from the PHC Primer
Authors:   Organised by: European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, WHO/Europe,   Chair persons: Dheepa Rajan (Belgium), Juliane Winkelmann (Belgium)
Published: October 2023

Primary health care (PHC) has been the focus of intense global attention over the past few years. It has been acknowledged as having a key role in achieving Universal Health Coverage, in advancing health equity and in enabling health system resilience. PHC as a whole-of-society approach translates the fundamental human right to health, the central role of people in co-creating their health and the responsibility of governments to enable the maintenance and restoration of health for all. The PHC approach aims to maximize the level and distribution of health and well-being through the three PHC components as endorsed in the Astana Declaration: (a) primary care and essential public health functions as the core of integrated health services; (b) multisectoral policy and action; and (c) empowered people and communities. A ‘PHC-oriented health system’ is composed of ‘models of care’ and core ‘health system levers’ that support UHC and access to services that are acceptable and affordable to the population and enhance equity. This session will present the comprehensive PHC approach that is enshrined in the understanding that fragmented approaches focusing on single diseases do not deliver on the goal of improving health for all. It will outline different models of care (MoC) that are reoriented around the values of PHC, namely solidarity, community empowerment and equity and show how different MoC components can operationalise the PHC principles. This session will further outline how countries implement the PHC approach across the WHO European region and highlight their trajectories. In particular, it will demonstrate Slovenia's experience in its transition towards comprehensive, integrated, people-centred PHC.

More specifically, the session aims to:

• summarize the evidence-informed contemporary theoretical and political rationale for PHC to guide its implementation in the 21st century,

• cultivate a common understanding of the concept, with a focus on developments in the global and public health arena in the last 20 years,

• provide a grounding in a thorough conceptual and practical comprehension of the possibilities and challenges of PHC to advance its implementation.

This workshop presents results from a global publication on primary health care, the PHC Primer, that is jointly produced by the World Health Organization and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. The PHC Primer collects latest evidence on primary health care and current approaches and developments adopted by countries to transform health systems towards more person-centred, holistic systems.

Key messages

• The development of strong PHC-oriented health systems requires a multi-pronged approach and policies in all operational levers.

• PHC oriented model of care should extend beyond integrated health services to facilitate engagement with communities and multisectoral action.

Speakers/Panelists

Luke Allen

LSHTM, London, UK

Erica Barbazza

University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Toni Dedeu

WHO European Centre for Primary Health Care, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Pia Vracko

NIJZ, Ljubljana, Slovenia