Editorial - (2020) Volume 10, Issue 3
Primary Health Care has been recognized as a form of essential health care which is made universally accessible and acceptable to the community at a cost which is affordable to them [1]. In the current era, wherein we all aim for the attainment of Universal Health Coverage and meeting the targets set under the Sustainable Development Goals, strengthening of primary health care has been identified and regarded as one of the most crucial determinants [1]. In general, community health is classified as Primary Health care, Secondary health care and Tertiary health care. Overall, a wide range of community health services are available in the nation and the services are planned and implemented by a wide gamut of government and health professionals. The goal of the community health services is to extend quality care and at a cost which the members of the community can afford [2].
In general, primary level of care has been acknowledged as the first point of contact between the general population and the health care delivery system, and this point of contact becomes extremely essential in the developing nations predominantly. Owing to the shortage of the health care professionals in the primary level of care and also because of the fact that the majority of the masses approach primary level of care for their health concerns, it becomes an indispensable concern for the health sector to strengthen the primary health care. The efforts targeted towards improving the primary health care is expected to deliver significant improvement in the wide range of health indices like increase in the life expectancy, reduction in the morbidity attributed to infectious disease, decline in the mortality due to various conditions, improvement in the quality of life and reduced direct and indirect expenditure on the health [3].
However, the path for strengthening primary health care is not easy and it will require a multi-sectoral and an approach in which all the concerned stakeholders are thoroughly involved with a primary aim to improve the quality of offered health care services [4]. Primary health care cannot be improved unless they are backed by a strong level of political commitment and this essentially means that policy makers are involved and motivate in each and every step which is meant to be delivered to the masses [4]. In addition, special emphasis should be directed towards training and retention of qualified and skilled health care professionals. The retention of healthcare professionals seems to be a difficult step, but it becomes feasible when steps are taken to not only give opportunities for health care staff for career advancement cum professional growth, but also provided adequate amount of resources to discharge their roles effectively and holistically [5].
Moreover, the system has to be established to ensure that we can maintain a consistent and uninterrupted supply of essentials (viz. medicines, laboratory equipment, reagents, etc.) depending upon the estimated needs [4,5]. Finally, we have to continue the efforts to expand the research activities to identify the needs of the general population and also the ways in which these needs can be met on a priority basis [5]. In conclusion, primary health care is a significant aspect of the health care delivery and all the stakeholders should join their hands together to strengthen the same.
Citation: Shrivastava S.R. "Primary Health Care & Factors ". Prim Health Care, 2020,10(3), e 128.
Received: 26-Jul-2020 Published: 31-Jul-2020
Copyright: © 2020 Saurabh RS. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
