primary care to the health of a population

8/9/2019 Primary Care to the Health of a Population

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PRIMARY CARE TO THE HEALTH OF A POPULATION

Essay by Josué M. Pedraza C.

INTRODUCTION

We can say that health is physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the

absence of disease or inrmity.

In this fact the role of primary care to the health is a very important fact for the

wellbeing of the community because this is based mainly on promotion and

prevention of diseases, providing the populations means to improve health and

increase control over it, through the intervention of the determinants of health and

reducing inequality.

This takes place mainly through the following elds: public policy formulation,creating supportive environments for health, strengthening action and community

participation, development of healthy personal attitudes and reorienting health

services for their !eatures The health promotion is a strong intersectoral action that

makes the social mobili"ation required to transform health conditions.

The primary care to the health refers to the kind of care provided at the rst point of

contact with the health care system.

The primary care to the health was originated with the #eclaration of $lma $ta

aiming to achieve %ealth for $ll by the &ear '(((. The principles set out in this

#eclaration are the essence of what is called comprehensive universal primary careof the health. This is essential health care based on practical methods and

technologies, scientically sound and socially acceptable, available to all individuals

and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the

community and country can a)ord to maintain at every single stages of

development in a spirit of self*reliance and auto*determination.

$ year after the declaration of $lma $lta, Walsh and Warren +--/, raised the

strategy of selective 0%1 +0rimary %ealth 1are/ as an interim alternative that would

allow start implementing 0%1. This strategy argued that the best way to improve

health was to ght a disease based on cost*e)ectiveness. Thus, these authors

identied four factors to guide the selection of the diseases with the aim of

prevention and treatment: prevalence, morbidity, mortality, and viability control

+including e)ectiveness and cost/.

This narrow selection of the specic conditions for these populations was designed

to improve health statistics, but abandoned the approach of $lma $ta on the social

equity and health, based on this approach the concept of comprehensive primary


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care is created, whose main components are a concern to improve the quality of

life, equity and access to care as guiding principles +2awn et als, '((3/.

!or some authors, the transformative potential from a selective primary care a

comprehensive health care has remained largely untapped +4agnussen et al, '((5/.

%owever, there were some important successes, especially in the -3(s where 0%1coverage was increased and health status of the population was considerably

improved +6tree7and 8 1habot, --(/.

The keys to these achievements were related to the political will to meet basic

health needs of all citi"ens, active participation of the population in the e)ort to

achieve this goal by improving social and economic equity +9aum 8 6anders,

-- /.

In 6eptember '((, after ' years of $lma $ta, 0$%; after meeting found that the

$06 were being considered in $merica,


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for encouraging and give opportunity to people actively involved in decisions about

their own health and health services for their community.

The 0rimary %ealth 1are, has sought to encourage community participation in

solving health problems and the e?ercise of the enforcement of law and

participation understood as the ability of the population to take e)ective anddignied part in decisions of health care and the implementation of programs and

pro


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$/ The 1ollective is represented by the $ssociations of users, 1ommunity

Involvement 1ommittees, by participation in the ethics committees of public

institutions and place community representation on the boards of directors of

insurers and service institutions health.9/ Individual is represented in the control e?ercised by the user through the

o@ces of customer service.

!rom this perspective, social participation in health is understood as e?ercise of

these skills the duties and rights of the individual to be directed towards the

conservation of personal, family and community health and contribute to the

planning, management, evaluation and oversight in health services. %owever, in

practice participation is down to individual service request given the barriers that

these institutions presented to the user few of them know the mechanisms of

participation and the way to access them, remains a rigid e?ercise of power from

institutions that do not promote attitudes of trust and tolerance to the proposals

and demands of the community. !or this reason, participation leads to recogni"e the

capacity of achieving users as the rst step in building trust and reciprocity. =iven acommunity that looks askance participation of institutions and the fulllment of

commitments is a rst step.

ENEFITS OF A HEALTH SYSTEM ASED ON PRIMARY HEALTH CARE!

a/ $llows access to health to all individuals and populations, promoting and

preventing health action in advance through basic health services on the basis of

the principles of solidarity and participation of individuals as they have with the

possibility to decide about their own health.

b/ 6eeking equality in health services for all citi"ens prioriti"ing prevention andpromoting it through reduced costs and better utili"ation of facilities to o)er a

better quality of life.

c/ Aquality of citi"ens of a population in terms of access and provision of health

services.

d/ $llows for more e@cient use of resources, given that prioriti"es most basic and

powerful performance, encouraging the use of basic health services, implementing

a rational use of them, generating a reduction in costs, an increase in performance

and improved quality of life. Aspecially in developing countries an imminent

increase in the e)ectiveness of health services and a reduction in child mortalityamong other benets derived from the implementation of the principles of 0%1 is

presented.

e/ 0romotes a range of services adapted to the needs of the population through a

decentrali"ation of resources that allows, through citi"en participation, the system

adapts to the specic needs of each community.


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f/ =uided by values of equity, solidarity and human rights, puts citi"ens the power

to decide about their own health. 9esides democrati"ation that implies, this

improves the legitimacy of the health system, generating greater self*reliance,

promoting healthy lifestyles, changing habits and behaviors of health care.

g/ This calls for a positive conception of health that goes beyond the treatment ofdisease, directly a)ecting the quality of life of people.

h/ $llows removal of economic, geographical and cultural barriers.

CONCLUSION

We can conclude by saying that the 0rimary %ealth 1are, has a lot of chances to

progress in all countries. $nd now more than ever, because there are opportunities

to start changing health systems and convert them into primary health care in all

countries.

The di@culties di)er in countries with di)erent income levels, but there are aspectsthat must be taken into account more money is spent on health than ever and have

more knowledge to address global health challenges, including better medical

technology.

1urrently it is also recogni"ed that threats and opportunities in health are common

throughout the world.

$id is important for some countries, but the vast maL-'>.


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G/ 4agnussen, 2. Ahiri, H. 8 Holly, 0. +'((5/. 1omprehensive versus 6elective 0rimary

%ealth 1are: 2essons for =lobal %ealth 0olicy. ', G>*>G.

>/ 6tree7and, 0. 8 1habot, H. +--(/. Implementing 0rimary %ealth 1are:

A?periences

since $lma $ta. oyal Tropical Institute

3/ 9aum, !, 8 6anders, #. +--/. 1an %ealth 0romotion and 0rimary %ealth 1are

$chieve

%ealth for $ll without a eturn to Their 4ore adical $gendaM. %ealth 0romotion

International (, ',5-LG(.

-/ 4ontenegro, %. =irard, H. #uarte, =. 8 ;yar"Nn, . +'((>/. $nOlisis de las 0olPticas

de la $tenciEn 0rimaria de 6alud +$06/ en 1hile.

primary care to the health of a population

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