Strong PHC leadership and political commitment places primary health care at the heart of efforts to strengthen health systems and achieve universal health coverage, global health security and the Sustainable Development Goals. PHC policies are decisions and plans undertaken by governments—with input from other stakeholders— that employ a primary health care approach to achieve health system goals. In particular, PHC policies should promote, establish, and support the appropriate financing, inputs and service delivery mechanisms needed to ensure quality of care, develop the core PHC functions, and improve population health outcomes. PHC policies also include Right to Health legislation that ensures all people can get the essential health services they need.
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Timeliness
The ability of the health system to provide primary care services to patients when they need them, with acceptable and reasonable wait times and at days and times that are convenient to them.
The ability of the health system to provide primary care services to patients when they need them, with acceptable and reasonable wait times and at days and times that are convenient to them.
Efficiency refers to the ability of a health system to attain its desired objective(s) with the available resources, while minimizing waste and maximizing capacities to deliver care to those who need it.
The ability of a health system to attain its desired objective(s) with the available resources, while minimizing waste and maximizing capacities to deliver care to those who need it.
People-centeredness means organizing the health system around the comprehensive needs of people rather than individual diseases.
People-centeredness means organizing the health system around the comprehensive needs of people rather than individual diseases. This involves engaging with people, families, and communities as equal partners in promoting and maintaining their health - including through communication, trust, and respect for preferences, as well as ongoing education and support so that they can participate in health care decisions.
The capacity of a primary care system to serve as the first point of contact, or a patient's entry point to the health system, for most of a person's health needs.
The capacity of a primary care system to serve as the first point of contact, or a patient's entry point to the health system, for most of a person's health needs.
Coordination of care refers to the system's ability to oversee and manage patient care over time and across levels of care to ensure appropriate follow-up, minimize the risk of error, and prevent complications.
The system's ability to oversee and manage patient care throughout the course of treatment and across various sites of care to ensure appropriate follow-up, minimize the risk of error, and prevent complications. Coordination of care happens across levels of care and over time, and often requires proactive outreach on the part of health care teams and consistent tracking and communication of progress.
Continuity is the degree to which a patient experiences a series of discrete healthcare events as coherent and consistent with their medical needs and personal context.
The degree to which a patient experiences a series of discrete healthcare events as coherent and consistent with their medical needs and personal context. This requires fostering trusted relationships between health care providers and patients over time (relational continuity), ensuring information is communicated from one event to the next (informational continuity), and ensuring the process is managed in a timely, complementary, and effective way across providers (management continuity).
The provision of holistic and appropriate care across promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative, chronic and palliative service needs.
The provision of holistic and appropriate care across a broad spectrum of health needs, ages, and solutions. Comprehensive primary health care is able to address a majority of promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative, chronic and palliative service needs.
The country has a national health sector policy, strategy oriented to PHC and UHC based on minimum standards (see technical specifications in metadata)
The country has an enabling legal environment for universal health coverage (UHC) that includes key elements (see technical specifications in metadata)
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Health in All Policies with multisectoral coordination
The country has implemented an HiAP approach that includes key elements (see technical specifications in metadata)
Related Concepts
Delivering high-quality primary health care requires many elements of the health system working effectively together. This mapping explores how different concepts with the framework relate to one another.
Upstream elements are those that are required to develop or improve a particular concept. Absence or poor performance of an upstream element is expected to negatively impact the performance of the concept of focus.
Complementary elements are those where improvements or developments in this area will be mutually beneficial to the concept of focus but not required for improvement.
UPSTREAM CONCEPTS
COMPLEMENTARY CONCEPTS
UPSTREAM SUBDOMAINS
Policy and Leadership
COMPLEMENTARY SUBDOMAINS
Adjustment to Population Health Needs
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Priority setting, a component of Adjustment to Population Health Needs, is a mutally reinforcing mechanism to PHC policies and agenda setting by leadership. While priority setting informs policy, policy initiatives and leadership directives, such as a five-year strategic plan, can stimulate priority setting processes and discussions.
Funding & Allocation of Resources
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Whether health funding or health policies come first depends on the context, however both are mutally strengthening mechanisms. The funding and allocation of resources to PHC can impact policy development and strategic planning, just as policies and PHC leadership can influence this funding.
Information & Technology
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Surveillance, and other health information systems, enable health systems to collect and share information on health metrics & population data for evidence-based policymaking.
Multi-Sectoral Approach
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A multi-sectoral approach ensures that PHC policies are formulated through a participatory process that includes diverse stakeholder representation. Additionally, mechanisms for multi-sectoral coordination at the national level help to ensure effective planning and coordination between leadership and stakeholders across sectors, not just health, to promote a Health in all Policies approach.
Population Health Management
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Priority setting at the local level, a component of popullation health management, enables the collection and use of local data. This also allows for alignment of national and sub-national policies with local priorities and agendas (and vice versa). Additionally, community engagement supports the involvement of local stakeholders in the planning of PHC policies.
Improvement Strategies
Each PHCPI Improvement Strategy is designed to help decision-makers begin to plan and enact reforms within their own context by providing additional resources and evidence on the topic, as well as practical recommendations for action.
Interested in understanding how this topic intersects with investment opportunities from major funding streams? The Global Frameworks Mapping provides a starting point to help identify and make connections between key PHC topics, relevant funding initiatives, and investment cases.
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Walking the Talk: Reimagining Primary Health Care After COVID-19
Outcome 1: Increase availability of quality-assured reproductive health commodities
Outcome 3: Countries increase and diversify financial and programmatic contributions and prioritize reproductive health and family planning as a core element of sustainable development
Outcome 4: Operational effectiveness and efficiency: Robust programme performance, oversight, and accountability
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Strategy 2030: Achieving a Prosperous, Inclusive, Resilient, and Sustainable Asia and the Pacific
Goal1A: strengthen countries' prioritisation of vaccines appropriate to their context
Goal 2A: Help countries extend immunisation services to regularly reach under-immunised and zero-dose children to build a stronger primary health care platform
Goal 3A: Strengthen national and subnational political and social commitment to immunisation
Goal 3B: Promote domestic public resources for immunisation and primary health care to improve allocative efficiency
Goal 3C: Prepare and engage self-financing countries to maintain or increase performance
Outcome 1: Midwifery - Midwives deliver right based quality sexual and reproductive health information and services that are women centered, equitable, accountable, and accessible.
Outcome 3: MPDSR: Causes of maternal and perinatal deaths are identified and addressed through MPDSR programmes.
Outcome 4: Quality sexual and reproductive health information and services are accessible to prevent and treat obstetric fistula and other obstetric morbidities.
Result Area 8: Fully funded and efficient HIV response implemented to achieve the 2025 targets
Result Area 9: Systems for health and social protection schemes that support wellness, livelihood, and enabling environments for people living with, at risk of, or affected by HIV to reduce inequalities and allow them to live and thrive
Result Area 10: Fully prepared and resilient HIV responses that protects people living with, at risk of, and affected by HIV in humanitarian settings and from the adverse impacts of current and future pandemics and other shocks
Cross-cutting Issue 1: Leadership, country ownership and advocacy
