Alma Ata declaration of 1978 emphasized on robust Primary Health Care to achieve the goal of “Health for All“ Primary Health Care centre are the first point of contact between the health provider and the rural people.
Significance of Primary Health Care:
Poor and rural people usually visit these Primary Health Care for any health-related issue.
- They are easily accessible and affordable by rural people.
- Trust between the health provider and people.
see all SOCIAL ISSUES RELATED TO HEALTH : PART 1
Issues faced Primary Health Care:
- Inadequate infrastructure.
- Less awareness among people. Some people think PHCs are meant for family planning only.
- The inadequate number of health providers in some states.
- The inadequate number of health providers in some states.
- Less number of PHCs against WHO recommended norm of PHC: population = 1:30,000.
- No technical capacity to avert and timely detection of disease.
- More importance on hospital-and –doctor oriented healthcare.
- Opposition by some sections against allowing community health providers to practice medicine.
- More importance on Secondary and tertiary healthcare by Government. – E.g. Ayushmaan Bharat.
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Way forwarded:
- Spending more by the government on PHCs.
- Fill vacancies of doctors in PHCs.
- Technology up-gradation.
- Building up infrastructure.
- Ensuring “gatekeeping approach“– no one should be allowed to go directly to specialists until visiting PHCs except emergencies.
see all SOCIAL ISSUES RELATED TO HEALTH : PART 2
The relevance of Alma Ata.
This declaration also called for government, and community health providers & other stakeholders to come forward to ensure “Health for All “.
- Its main emphasis was to strengthen Primary Health Care, which is still relevant.
Hence, Primary Health Care is very crucial if we want to achieve the goal of Health for All. Bhore committee also recommending strengthening PHCs. The government must take initiatives to make PHCs more robust. It will also help us achieve SDG3 (good health and well-being).