ISBN:
9781464817687
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource
Series Statement:
Other Health Study
Keywords:
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE
;
CORONAVIRUS
;
COVID-19
;
PANDEMIC RESPONSE
;
HEALTH CARE DELIVERY
;
HEALTH FINANCING
;
ACCOUNTABILITY
;
INEQUITY
;
HEALTH CARE REFORM
Abstract:
The world has waited long enough for high-performing primary health care (PHC). It's time to deliver. Forty years ago, leaders embraced the promise of health for all through PHC. That vision has inspired generations. But for nearly half a century, countries have struggled to walk the talk on PHC. We have not built health systems anchored in strong PHC where they were needed most. Today, COVID-19 (coronavirus) has brought the reckoning for that shared failure-but also the chance to do the job right at last. The pandemic has shown policy makers and ordinary citizens why health systems matter and what happens when they fail. By doing so, it has also created a once- in-a-generation chance for structural health-system change. Bold reforms now can prepare health systems for future crises and bring goals like universal health coverage (UHC) within reach. PHC holds the key to these transformations. But to fulfill that promise, the walk has to finally match the talk. This report charts an agenda toward reimagined, fit-for-purpose PHC. It asks three questions about health-systems reform built around PHC: "Why?", "What?", and "How?" Since PHC has been around for decades, why write a thick report about it now? The answer is that the characteristics of high-performing PHC are exactly those that are most critical for managing the pressures coming to bear on health systems in the post-COVID world. The challenges include future infectious outbreaks and other emergent threats, but also long-term structural trends that are reshaping the environments in which systems operate in non-crisis times. This report highlights three sets of megatrends that will increasingly affect health systems in the decades ahead: demographic and epidemiological shifts; changes in technology; and citizens' evolving expectations for health care
